View clinical trials related to Craving.
Filter by:This study will evaluate the effects of retrieval-extinction (R-E) training on responding to high calorie foods including self-report craving, physiological responding, and high calorie food intake in adults with overweight/obesity. R-E training aims to update the memories that associate cues (i.e., high calorie food) with reward (i.e., consumption). R-E training involves "retrieving" these cue-reward associative memories through brief presentation of relevant cues, resulting in instability of the memories and providing an opportunity to be updated via reconsolidation. Presenting relevant cues while not allowing consumption (i.e., extinction training) during reconsolidation can modify the unstable cue-reward memories, resulting in lasting reductions of craving and intake. This study will be the first to test the effects of R-E training on craving for and intake of high calorie foods in humans. To examine the effects of R-E training on food craving, physiological response (heart rate, skin conductance, salivation), and food intake, 150 adults with overweight/obesity will complete baseline food cue-reactivity and intake tasks in the lab. Participants will be randomized to observe high calorie food cues (i.e., "retrieval" of food cue-reward memories; R-E training group) or non-food cues (i.e., no retrieval of food cue-reward memories; extinction control group) and engage in 60 min of extinction training for high calorie foods. R-E/extinction control training will occur on two consecutive days and four follow-up food cue-reactivity sessions through 3 months. Weight will be assessed at each session and in-lab food intake at 1- and 3-months. Recent food/drink intake will also be assessed at each session. Some participants (n=75) will complete a pilot portion of the study involving real-world data collection of naturally-occurring food cues, craving, and food intake via smartphone. It is hypothesized that: (1) R-E training (vs. extinction control) will decrease high calorie food cue-reactivity (self-report craving, heart rate, skin conductance, salivation) and intake assessed in the lab, as well as self-report craving and food intake assessed in the real world; and (2) decreased high calorie food cue-reactivity will be a mechanism through which R-E training reduces high calorie food intake at follow-up. The Principal Investigator will explore associations between lab and real-world cue-elicited craving and food intake, and the effect of R-E training on weight.
Tobacco smokers with schizophrenia are known to be resistant smokers, with high rates of smoking and inability to quit in the long-term, often related to smoking relapse. This may relate to problems with frontal lobe function associated with schizophrenia, which make these patients have great difficulty in dealing with smoking withdrawal, urges and cravings. The current study will develop a combination approach that takes advantage of brain stimulation of the frontal lobes (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), in combination with the anti-smoking drug varenicline, to prevent smoking lapse using a well-established human laboratory method. Results from this study may have important implications for developing novel treatment approaches for smokers with schizophrenia.
The objective of this proposal is to advance medication development for alcohol use disorder by examining the efficacy and mechanisms of action of minocycline, a neuroimmune modulator, as a potential treatment. This study has important clinical implications, as the available treatments for alcohol use disorder are only modestly effective and testing novel medications is a high research priority.