View clinical trials related to Drug Abuse.
Filter by:The primary purpose of the project entitled: Multidisciplinary Approach to Reduce Injury and Substance Abuse, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (5R01DA026088-02), is to compare the effectiveness of brief intervention, brief intervention plus a booster, and brief advice for adult patients who abuse drugs and present to a trauma department for treatment of an injury.
Background: - Nicotine addiction is common among people who smoke tobacco, and the addictive properties of nicotine make smoking cessation difficult even for people who want to quit. Research has shown that smoking causes changes in the brain that lead to addiction and craving, but more research is needed to determine how different doses of nicotine and different intervals of receiving nicotine affect brain function. A greater understanding of nicotine's effect on the brain, as studied through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), may improve the effectiveness of smoking cessation therapies and treatments. Objectives: - To determine the effects of nicotine on brain function and chemistry in experienced cigarette smokers. Eligibility: - Current smokers (at least 20 cigarettes per day for at least 1 year) between 18 and 50 years of age. Design: - The study involves five separate research experiments. Most participants will be involved in only one experiment. - The experiments will evaluate brain activity and function using fMRI. Participants will be trained in a series of tests on cognitive function before beginning the experimental part of the study. - Experiment 1: Participants will have three fMRI scan sessions after receiving different dose levels of intravenous nicotine. - Experiment 2: Participants will have four fMRI scan sessions after receiving two doses of nicotine separated by 1/4, 1/2, 3, and 24 hours. - Experiment 3: Participants will have two sets of nicotine injections separated by 45 minutes, with each injection series containing five rapid injections of small amounts of nicotine (to mimic five puffs on a cigarette). - Experiment 4: Participants will have three fMRI sessions after receiving a single injection of nicotine at three different rates (over 15, 60, or 120 seconds). In addition there will be three more sessions involving a nicotine patch and a nicotine injection as well as a placebo session. - Experiment 5: Participants will have three fMRI sessions that will involve looking at different kinds of pictures related to or not related to smoking after receiving a single injection of nicotine. - Participants will also provide blood samples for further study....
Background: - Many cigarette smokers claim that smoking improves their ability to think and concentrate, and have reported problems in thinking and concentration after quitting smoking. Some research has indicated that nicotine can enhance certain aspects of attention and memory in humans. However, more research is needed to determine how nicotine affects different elements of the brain s ability to think, pay attention, respond to rewards, and make decisions. Researchers are interested in using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the effects of nicotine on brain function and activity. Objectives: - To determine the effects of nicotine on attentional and other thinking processes, including reward-seeking behavior. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 50 years of age who are either current smokers (10 or more cigarettes per day for at least 1 year) or nonsmokers. Design: - The study has four experiments. Each experiment requires two MRI scanning sessions and a training session. Participant can do one or all of the experiments. - Participants will receive training on the types of computerized tests that will be given during the active portion of the study. Participants will also fill out questionnaires on nicotine use and other alcohol and drug use, and provide breath and urine samples. - During the test sessions, participants will have fMRI scanning while performing up to four different sets of tasks that test attention, memory, concentration, reward-seeking behavior, and decision making. Smokers will wear a nicotine patch or placebo patch during the test sessions, but will not be told which patch they are receiving. The order of these sessions will be different for individual participants. - Participants will provide blood and urine samples throughout the research study for evaluation purposes.
Background: - Drugs of abuse have effects on mood, behavior, thinking, and decision making that may encourage people to continue using them and make it difficult for them to stop. Researchers who study these effects are interested in developing new tests to evaluate how drugs and drug use affect different areas of the brain. - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans allow researchers to study brain activity and changes to brain function. When specific psychological tests are performed during functional MRI (fMRI) scans, researchers can examine the effects of drug use on the brain. By developing and testing new procedures for fMRI studies, more information can be obtained on brain function and activity in drug-using and non-drug-using individuals, and this information can help develop new treatments and therapies for substance abuse. Objectives: - To evaluate the effects of newly developed psychological procedures to be performed during fMRI scans. Eligibility: - Healthy volunteers between 13 and 65 years of age who are willing to undergo MRI scanning. - Both drug-using and non-drug-using individuals will be selected for this study. Design: - Before the start of the study, participants will complete questionnaires about medical and psychological history, and provide information about past or current drug use. Researchers will introduce the tasks to be performed during the scanning session(s), and will allow participants to practice the test either on a separate computer or on the computer used during the MRI scan. - During the study, participants will be asked to do one or more tasks selected by the researchers. The tasks will be performed on a computer in an MRI machine, and may involve receiving rewards (such as money or sips of juice) for actions, memory and reaction-time tests, or other tests that involve responding to instructions on the screen. - Participants will receive compensation for their participation in the study, including hourly compensation for individual visits and lump-sum compensation for each MRI scan....
Background: - Functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have allowed researchers to map and study how the brain works when at rest and when engaged in specific tasks. MRI scans have provided more information about how drugs affect the brain, and about how drug addiction changes the brain and influences behavior, mood, and thinking processes. To better understand the underlying mechanism of drug addiction and to develop strategies for more effective treatment, researchers are interested in developing new MRI techniques to study the effects of addiction on the brain. Objectives: - To develop new functional and structural MRI techniques, and to evaluate their potential use in brain imaging studies related to addiction. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 80 years of age. - Participants may be smokers or nonsmokers, and may use drugs or not use drugs. Design: - During the initial screening, participants will complete questionnaires about family and personal history, drug use, and other information as required by the researchers. Participants who will be asked to complete tasks during the MRI scan will be shown how to perform these tasks before the scanning session. - Before each study session, participants may be asked to complete some or all of the following: questions about their drug use during the last week, a breathalyzer test, a urine drug-use assessment, a urine pregnancy test, or a measure of carbon monoxide. Participants will also provide blood samples before the start of the scan. - For each scanning session, participants will have an MRI scan that will last approximately 2 hours. - MRI scans may include specific tasks to be performed during the scan, or an experiment that studies the brain's response to carbon dioxide.
Background: - Cues related to past drug use induce a particular pattern of brain activation, which has been correlated with craving for cocaine in active cocaine abusers. Researchers are interested in determining the role of the brain chemical dopamine in cue-elicited as well as spontaneous craving for cocaine. - To study the role of dopamine in cocaine craving, researchers will use positron emission tomography (PET) to compare the neural reactions of cocaine users with those of non-substance-abusing healthy volunteers. Researchers hope that the data gathered from this study will lead to the development of more effective anti-craving medications. Objectives: - To clarify the role of dopamine in cue-elicited responses that contribute to cocaine abuse. - To determine if PET results of this study differ with various means of administering PET chemicals. Eligibility: - Individuals 21 to 44 years of age who are either current cocaine users (at least twice per week) or healthy volunteers without a history of drug abuse. Design: - Cocaine-using participants will enter the inpatient clinical research ward at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Addiction Research Center for 2 nights before the day of the study. In addition, these participants will stay overnight at NIDA the evening after each PET session and will be discharged the following day. Cocaine-using participants will be required to perform a balance test before the study to provide a baseline response in case they require anti-anxiety medications to cope with the effects of the study. - Control subjects will not be required to stay overnight and will arrive as outpatients for the PET session. All participants will be required to abstain from alcohol and caffeine consumption from midnight before each study session, and will not be permitted to smoke on the day of testing. - - On the day of the study, participants will undergo a practice session to set up the PET scanning equipment. Following the practice session, participants will be shown video recordings of images that are related to nature (e.g., seashells) or to drug abuse (e.g., drug paraphernalia). Participant reactions will be studied through the PET monitoring, and the study will be conducted in two separate PET sessions with a break in between. Individuals in the cocaine-using group may receive anti-anxiety medication if the stimulus cues increase anxiety related to cocaine craving. - Different groups of participants will receive different methods of PET chemical administration, and researchers will compare these methods.
Background: - Environmental cues frequently induce expectancies in individuals that may strongly influence the actual experience associated with the cue. This has both positive and negative consequences for behavior and decision making. For instance, when an addicted individual experiences cues associated with imminent drug taking, an expectancy of the coming experience is also formed and very likely has an effect on the subsequent experience of the drug. - Researchers are interested in studying how the brain responds to these kinds of environmental cues and expectancies in order to learn more about addiction and craving in substance-abusing individuals. Objectives: - To compare the response to rewards (both drug-related and non-drug-related) in cocaine users and non-using individuals. - To study the effect of expectation on reward-related (both drug-induced and non-drug-induced) responses and brain activity in cocaine users and non-using individuals. Eligibility: -Individuals between 18 and 45 years of age who are regular cocaine users but otherwise healthy, or healthy individuals who are not cocaine users. Design: - This study involves two experiments. Participants will be assigned to one or both experiments. - Participants must not use any drugs for at least 3 days before the visit, may not consume alcohol for 24 hours before the visit, and may not consume caffeinated beverages for 12 hours before the visit. On the day of the visit, participants will provide both urine and breath samples to test for drug/alcohol use. - Experiment 1: In the MRI scanner, participants will respond to questions and images on a screen, and will receive small amounts of flavored liquid (chocolate or cherry) through a tube in the mouth. - Experiment 2: In the MRI scanner, participants will respond to questions and images on a screen, and will receive injections of liquid (saline solution or a drug that provides a high similar to cocaine) through an intravenous line. Participants in this experiment will return for follow-up visits and provide urine samples for further study. - The specific assignment (to Experiment 1 or Experiment 2 or both experiments) will determine the number of study days and follow-up visits required.
Background: - Cocaine affects the brain's ability to process information. However, different people respond to cocaine in different ways, and differences in brain structure and function may affect how cocaine alters brain activity. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity during tasks that provide simple rewards, researchers hope to better understand how the brain responds to rewards and how this response is affected by drugs like cocaine. Objectives: - To determine the effect of cocaine administration on the reward experience in cocaine-dependent individuals. - To study genetic and personality factors that may contribute to cocaine dependence. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 45 years of age who either are cocaine-dependent and not seeking treatment or are healthy volunteers. Design: - Participants will be asked to avoid consuming alcohol and restrict consumption of caffeine prior to the study. Participants provide urine and breath samples to be tested for chemicals that may interfere with the study. - All participants will complete a training session and at least one fMRI scanning session. During the training session, participants will be introduced to the reward tasks and MRI equipment. - Healthy volunteers will have a single fMRI session that will involve reward tasks to be completed during the scanning. Rewards will include small amounts of fruit juice and the opportunity to win money. - Cocaine-dependent participants will have a training session and three experimental sessions including 1) a mock MRI scan to test cocaine tolerance, 2) one fMRI scan with reward tasks after administration of IV cocaine, and 3) one fMRI scan with reward tasks after administration of IV placebo (saline solution). Rewards will include small amounts of fruit juice and the opportunity to win money. - In addition to the scans, participants will provide a blood sample for further study and will answer questionnaires provided by the researchers.
Background: - New research on genetics and the human genome has helped to identify certain genes that affect specific parts of the brain, including the parts that may be involved in drug use and dependency. Researchers are interested in studying both genetic information and brain activity to better understand variations in brain function among individuals. Objectives: - To study brain activity in conjunction with specific genetic information provided by healthy volunteers including smokers, non-smokers, people with drug dependence, and those who do not have any dependence on any substance. Eligibility: - Healthy volunteers between 18 and 50 years of age. Design: - This is an 8 10 hour study which may be completed in 1, 2, or 3 visits. - Participants will complete questionnaires about emotional and psychological responses to different situations, including stressful situations. - Participants will have a training session in a mock (fake) scanner to practice tasks to be completed in the real scanner. - Participants will have the following two types of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in one scan session of the brain: - A structural MRI scan to provide basic information about each participant's brain. - A functional MRI scanning session, in which participants will perform a memory task to provide information about brain activity. - Participants will provide blood samples for research and testing....
Background: - Recent research has suggested that prenatal exposure to drugs may affect specific brain processes, including working memory, stress response, and decision making. However, most of the research on the effects of prenatal drug exposure in humans has been conducted early in life, and very little is known about effects of prenatal drug exposure during the crucial brain development period that takes place during puberty and adolescence. The biological and psychological changes associated with puberty may increase adolescents' sensitivity to prenatal substance exposure. Researchers are interested in using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to study brain function and learn more about the effects of prenatal drug exposure on adolescents. Objectives: - To examine the effects of prenatal substance exposure on working memory, decision making, and normal brain activity in adolescents. Eligibility: - Adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age who are enrolled in a larger follow-up study of children exposed to drugs in utero. Design: - The study will involve a single outpatient session with two fMRI scans that will test working memory and decision-making processes. - Participants will have brief medical history, a physical examination, and a urine test for drugs of abuse. - Participants will then be trained on the working memory and decision-making tasks before having an initial MRI scan to provide a baseline reading. - The fMRI scans will take 40 to 45 minutes each, and participants will have break in between as needed.