View clinical trials related to Drug Addiction.
Filter by:Classical conditioning is widely used to study motivational properties of addictive drugs in animals, but has rarely been used in humans. Here, we are establishing a procedure suitable for studying the neurobiology and individual determinants of classical conditioning in humans. Healthy volunteers are randomly assigned to four groups that received methamphetamine or placebo in the presence of distinctive environmental cues under paired or unpaired conditions. During each session, subjects perform tasks known to activate the ventral striatum in fMRI studies. The tasks are performed in the presence of a distinctive context, consisting of a screen background image of a beach or of mountains, accompanied by corresponding sounds. Separate groups of subjects carry out the tasks under high or low reward conditions. Within each of the two reward conditions, one group (paired), receives methamphetamine (20 mg, oral) or placebo consistently associated with one of the contexts, while the other (unpaired) receives drug or placebo unrelated to context. A fifth group (paired) perform the tasks with contextual cues but in the absence of monetary incentives. Before and after conditioning, participants carry out a series of forced choice tasks, and change of preference over time was analyzed.
The number of people seeking treatment for marijuana-related problems is on the rise, yet there is no currently accepted medication proven to help them quit. Frequent marijuana users have reported that they have trouble sleeping when they try to quit, and that the loss of sleep can lead to relapse. This research is designed to measure the severity of sleep problems in people as they are trying to quit heavy use of marijuana, and to investigate whether extended-release zolpidem (Ambien CR®) can improve quit rates among people trying to stop using marijuana.
Background: - The risk for becoming addicted to drugs varies among individual, even those using similar drugs in a similar way. It is not known why some people become addicted and others do not. Studies suggest that some genes may increase the risk of addiction. Negative life experiences may also affect the risk of addiction. Researchers want to test smokers and nonsmokers to study genetic and brain function traits that may lead to drug addiction. Objectives: - To understand brain function in people who may be at a higher risk of drug addiction. Eligibility: - Healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years of age. - Smokers (10 to 30 cigarettes per day for more than 2 years) and nonsmokers will be eligible. Design: - Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. They will be tested for drug and alcohol use. A blood sample will be collected. - The study will involve one visit. Participants will have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. - At the visit, participants will answer questions about their health and drug use habits. They will then be trained on the tasks they will do during the MRI scan. After the training, they will have the scan and perform the tasks. The scan and tasks will look at brain function related to rewards and impulsiveness. - Other computer tests will be given after the scan. These tests will measure learning, memory, and impulsiveness.
This project is aimed at parents with a teenager who is already starting to use drugs. The study will test a new, innovative version of a brief intervention. This program will be home based rather than implemented by a counselor in a clinical setting. The stage I activities will involve manual development, parent training development, and a small feasibility study; Stage II involves an efficacy study. Two samples, 110 families each, will participate in the trial. Families will be assigned to either an intervention or control condition. The investigators hypothesize that the home-based intervention will be superior to the control condition. In addition, the investigators expect response to the intervention by the adolescent to be mediated by motivation, cognitions, problem solving, peer drug use, parenting skills and parent self-efficacy.
The purpose of this study was to develop and initially evaluate an efficacious, comprehensive, culturally sensitive, women-centered model of care for pregnant South African women by adapting and refining PI Jones' Reinforcement-Based Treatment (RBT) model, at the same time integrating into it the HIV prevention components of Co-I Wechsberg's Women's Health CoOp (WHC) model, yielding an integrated treatment and prevention model, RBT+WHC.
Contingency management (CM) is a demonstrably efficacious intervention for substance abuse and dependence. Although CM protocols have employed a variety of reinforcers, they have almost exclusively relied upon non-cash privileges (e.g., take-home methadone doses), prizes, or vouchers that can be exchanged for goods or services. Despite the strong empirical support for CM, our research suggests that concerns relating to its cost and safety (e.g., potential for harm caused by rewards undermining intrinsic motivation or being sold to purchase drugs) have hindered its transfer to real-world practice. The exclusive use of non-cash CM likely stems from the untested assumption that clients will use cash incentives to buy drugs or engage in other high-risk behaviors. This assumption is problematic for two reasons. First, the use of non-cash incentives may add substantial costs and complexity to CM protocols. Second, the use of non-cash incentives may reduce the efficacy of CM interventions, as research suggests that cash may be a more effective reinforcer than vouchers. This study examines both practical and ethical issues relating to cash-based CM procedures. This study consists of three phases; a main experiment, a "Cash Bowl" pilot, and a "Thinning" Pilot.
This project will modify Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT; n=15) and Alanon/Naranon Facilitation (ANF; n=15) for use with parents who are concerned about an out-of-treatment adolescent. ANF was selected as a comparison because Alanon and Naranon are the most commonly available method for helping family members. The investigators will compare CRAFT for parents (CRAFT-P) (n=77) and ANF (n=77) to determine if there is a significant difference in adolescent treatment entry. Parents will attend a maximum of 18 sessions with a family specialist and also complete questionnaires periodically over a 12-month period. Parents' adolescents will have the opportunity to participate in the study by completing questionnaires at the same time points as their parent. Our primary hypothesis asks whether participants who are enrolled in the CRAFT-P condition will report more adolescent treatment entry than the ANF condition. Our secondary hypotheses examine: 1) reductions in adolescent substance use and behavior problems in the CRAFT-P group compared to the ANF condition, 2) improvements in parenting skills in the CRAFT-P group compared to the ANF condition and 3) significant pre to post treatment effects for improvements in social functioning, mood, and in parent-adolescent relationship satisfaction.
Background: - Varenicline (Chantix ) is a drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help people stop smoking. Varenicline is very effective in helping some people quit smoking, but is less effective for others. Researchers are interested in conducting more in-depth studies into how varenicline works, including its effect on smokers' responses to items that may trigger cigarette cravings, in order to develop better smoking cessation medications. Objectives: - To examine the effectiveness of varenicline as an effective medication for tobacco addiction by studying its effect on nicotine reinforcement, nicotine-seeking behavior, cue-elicited craving, and performance impairment and craving after overnight tobacco deprivation. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 50 years of age who have been smoking at least 10 cigarettes per day for at least 2 years. Design: - This study will require 12 study visits. Some visits will be brief and other visits that involve test sessions will last up to 8 hours. If no sessions are repeated, the study will take 26 days. Participants will not be required to attempt to quit smoking during this study. - Participants will be screened with a full physical examination and medical history, blood and urine tests, and other tests as required by the study researchers. - Participants will take two sets of pills during the study: the first set during the first 12 days of the study, followed by a 2-day break, then the second set during the last 12 days. Some of the pills will contain varenicline, and others will be placebos. - On Day 1 of the study, participants will come to the National Institute on Drug Abuse to receive the first set of pills. Participants will take the first pill before leaving. - On Day 8, participants will have a training session that will measure the amount of carbon monoxide in the breath. Participants will also complete several questionnaires about smoking habits and current mood, and will have a chance to practice the procedures they will do in the study. - On Days 9 and 10, participants will have behavioral test sessions that will last 7 to 8 hours. Day 9 will involve tests of cue response to items that may trigger cigarette cravings, and tests of general nicotine cravings over several hours. Day 10 will involve tests of general nicotine cravings over several hours, and then tests of nicotine-seeking behavior. Participants will be provided with lunch during these all-day sessions. - On Day 11, participants will have memory and attention tests, and will provide a blood sample. Participants will not be allowed to smoke for 12 hours before the start of the next test on Day 12. - On Day 12, participants will provide a breath sample, and will have two sets of memory and attention tests before they will be permitted to start smoking again. There will be no tests on Days 13 and 14. - Starting on Day 15, participants will repeat the schedule of tests from Days 1 through 12 with the second set of pills.
Background: - Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and researchers are interested in gaining a better understanding of the perceived beneficial effects of nicotine to help improve treatment strategies for nicotine dependence. Understanding the conditions under which nicotine improves attention and cognitive processing may provide more useful information for this research. - The ability to pay attention and filter relevant from irrelevant stimuli is central to all aspects of information-processing. Top-down and bottom-up attentional processes illustrate how the brain combines stimuli and goal-directed behaviors. Bottom-up processing is an unconscious response to sensory input; for instance, when the eyes automatically focus on a prominent image in a picture. Top-down processing is a conscious response to drive attention toward specific stimuli; for instance, when a person is asked to focus on a less immediately noticeable image in a picture. Researchers are interested in determining whether nicotine improves cognitive performance by acting on top-down or bottom-up attentional mechanisms. Objectives: - To investigate the effect of nicotine on the top-down and bottom-up mechanisms of attention in cigarette smokers. Eligibility: - Current smokers (at least 10 cigarettes per day for at least 1 year) between 18 and 55 years of age. Design: - This study will involve one training session and four experimental sessions. - During the training session, participants will receive a sample dose of the nicotine nasal spray used in the study to determine if they can tolerate the effects. - For each experimental session, participants will receive one dose of nicotine nasal spray (1 mg, 2 mg, or 3 mg) or placebo spray, followed by blood pressure and heart rate monitoring, performance of an attentional test, and questionnaires to rate participants perception of nicotine effectiveness. Participants may receive different doses at different sessions, and will not be told which dose they will receive at any given point.
The purpose of this 2 year study is to conduct a fully powered effectiveness trial comparing recovery trajectories of 200 drug dependent adults (the subjects) who will be randomly assigned to Treatment as Usual (TAU) or TAU + Long-Term Recovery Management (LTRM).