Alcohol Drinking Clinical Trials

The study will employ a combined laboratory-ambulatory design. Participants will engage in ambulatory assessment over the course of 14 days, wearing biosensors assessing transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) and providing breathalyzer readings in real-world contexts. Also during this period, participants will attend three laboratory alcohol-administration sessions scheduled at one-week intervals, with alcohol dose and rate of consumption manipulated within and between participants, respectively. Laboratory visits will also double as ambulatory orientation, check-in, and close-out sessions. Read Less

The research study is being conducted in health controls to better understand the effects of ketosis on brain functioning after 3 different, randomly assigned, 3-day dietary interventions and the acute effects of alcohol after consuming about 4-5 alcohol beverages. The labs visits will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to study the brain, measuring levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), lactate, neurotransmitters glutamate, and Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Read Less

The current proposal aims to enhance a mobile-delivered brief intervention for young adults with heavy alcohol use and interpersonal trauma by including adaptive coping strategies for managing trauma-related distress and using peer coaches after delivery of the intervention to maintain treatment gains. Individuals will be randomized to a modified brief intervention incorporating with peer coaches, a standard brief intervention, or assessment only. Participants will be followed up at 3 and 6 months post intervention. The investigators hypothesize that the trauma-informed and peer-supported brief intervention (TIPS-BI) will show low levels of dropout, will be perceived positively by participants, and will result in greater reductions in alcohol use compared to a standard brief intervention and assessment only. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavioral and neural correlates of stress exposure. Results from this study will enrich the understanding of how sociocultural, behavioral, and neural factors combine to influence alcohol use. Read Less

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused a pandemic infection called COVID-19. It is a global threat to people, communities, and health systems. Researchers are concerned about the mental health effects of the pandemic. They want to learn more about how it is affecting people s alcohol use and problems, and how it may continue to affect them over time. Objective: To study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use and consequences in individuals across the spectrum of alcohol use and those with alcohol use disorder. Eligibility: Participants who have been screened under the NIAAA Screening, Assessment and Management Protocol (14-AA-0181) Design: Participants will complete a baseline survey by phone. It will ask about alcohol use, alcohol dependence, and stress. It covers 2 time periods: the 12 months before the pandemic started and the time since it started. Participants will get an ID code and a link to an online survey. They will complete the online survey within a week of the phone survey. Participants will complete a series of online surveys over 24 months. For the first year, surveys will be completed weekly for the first 4 weeks, then biweekly for the next 8 weeks, and then every 1-2 months for the rest of the year. For the second year, surveys will be completed every 6 months. Surveys will cover the following topics: * Alcohol use and its consequences * Other substance use * Stress * Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic * Pain * Physical health * Sleep * Quality of life. Because the course of the pandemic may change, the frequency of the surveys may change. Participation lasts 2 years. Read Less

Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have greater prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs), with this comorbidity associated with worse illness outcomes, yet there remains limited mechanistic understanding of how PTSD confers risk for AUD. Understanding risk factors that associate with and predict the development of AUDs in PTSD could inform interventions and prevention efforts to reduce the rate of this comorbidity and improve outcomes of both disorders. Identifying predictors of risk requires longitudinal studies in PTSD aimed at capturing the mechanisms leading to the emergence of AUDs. There is growing evidence PTSD is related to biased decision-making during approach-avoidance conflict. Alcohol is also suggested to alter approach-avoidance decision-making. AUDs and acute alcohol intoxication is associated with a bias to seek out reward despite the possibility of threat (e.g., contributing to relapse following alcohol cue exposure and risky behavior during intoxication respectively). Alcohol-induced changes in approach-avoidance decision-making have not been investigated in the context of PTSD, but emerging data support the investigators' hypothesis that an interaction between alcohol and approach-avoidance conflict in PTSD may occur and contribute to risk for alcohol misuse and development of alcohol problems. No current data, cross-sectional or longitudinal, have tested the role of alcohol-induced changes in approach-avoidance conflict as a mechanism of risk for AUD among individuals with PTSD. To address this gap, the investigators propose to leverage the group's expertise in placebo-controlled alcohol administration procedures, longitudinal modeling, functional neuroimaging, and computational neuroscience approaches to investigate the effects of acute alcohol on approach-avoidance decision-making and mediating changes in multivariate neurocircuitry patterns in limbic, striatal, and salience networks. Read Less

The investigators propose to examine mornings after drinking as an optimal time to provide repeated, personalized feedback, with the goal of reducing hazardous drinking. Specifically, the investigators will further develop and pilot test a novel theory-based personalized feedback intervention (PFI) for heavy drinking young adults. Intervention strategies include personalized feedback (e.g., feedback on prior night blood alcohol concentration, consequences) contrasted with both drinking goals set at baseline and corrective normative feedback (e.g., how last night's drinking compares to peers). Up to 170 participants (50% non-college) will be randomized to one of three groups: PFI with monetary incentives for daily surveys, PFI without monetary incentives, or survey assessment only. The investigators will examine recruitment rates, retention rates, confirmation of intervention content delivery/intake, response rates to daily surveys, data quality, and ratings of intervention value. Investigators will test whether these indicators of engagement differ between those who do and do not receive monetary incentives for daily surveys. Further, baseline, post-test, and 3-month follow-up assessments will allow us to examine differences in drinking behavior between PFI and control. The results of the proposed research will result in a novel and scalable intervention for alcohol misuse among young adults, with potential to have an important impact on the public health problem of high-risk drinking. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to develop transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), specifically TMS at a frequency known as theta burst stimulation (TBS), to see how it affects the brain and changes the brain's response to alcohol-related pictures. TMS and TBS are stimulation techniques that use magnetic pulses to temporarily excite specific brain areas in awake people (without the need for surgery, anesthetic, or other invasive procedures). TBS, which is a form of TMS, will be applied over the medial prefrontal cortex, (MPFC), which has been shown to be involved with drinking patterns and alcohol consumption. This study will test whether TBS can be used as an alternative tool to reduce the desire to use alcohol and reducing the brain's response to alcohol-related pictures. Read Less

Acute alcohol intoxication is a robust predictor of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration for young adult men and women; therefore, interventions delivered proximally to drinking episodes - a period of high risk - are needed to reduce alcohol-facilitated IPV. This project seeks to improve public health by delivering a just-in-time text messaging intervention proximally to drinking episodes and evaluating the impact of the intervention on alcohol-facilitated IPV in a sample of at-risk young adult men and women. Additionally, through an innovative design this project is poised to answer these important questions: whether receiving a message, when, for whom, what type, and under what conditions this just-in-time messaging intervention leads to reductions in alcohol use and IPV perpetration. Read Less

This sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial will test treatments designed to reduce alcohol use before and after surgery to promote surgical health and long-term wellness. Read Less

The goal of this treatment development project is to develop an adaptive ecological momentary intervention (a-EMI) for young adults using marijuana and alcohol that is grounded in self-regulation and social cognitive theories. To determine the most efficacious intervention strategies, the investigators will test variations of intervention components to identify the best combination. The study will take place at the Center for Integrated Health Care Research at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii (KPHI), located in Honolulu (island of Oahu). Following pilot testing with 6 participants, the study team will assess the feasibility and efficacy of intervention components on two primary outcomes (negative consequences and protective behavioral strategies \[PBS\]) using a fractional factorial experimental design, with post-intervention assessment and one- and three-month follow-ups. 136 diverse young adults recruited from KPHI who report current simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use will be randomly assigned to one of eight groups, representing experimental conditions that include or do not include intervention strategies focused on craving reduction and PBS. As a result of this process, individual and/or combined components that lead to improved outcomes will be retained in a subsequent randomized controlled trial, while ineffective components will be eliminated. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of two programs to prevent/reduce alcohol misuse among youth primary care patients. Depending on their study condition, youth will receive a brief web-based computer program or the web program + 8 weeks of supportive text messages. Parents/caregivers of youth are encouraged to use a freely available app to guide conversations with their child about drinking. This study will have significant impact by evaluating response to these scalable interventions which can be deployed widely in clinical care settings. Read Less