Alcohol Drinking Clinical Trials

The overall objective of this project is to develop and obtain preliminary data on acceptability, feasibility, and initial efficacy of Native PATHS. This work is guided by the stage model guidelines for treatment development and adaptation 25. Stage 1a will occur in two sequential steps. First, the investigators will recruit youth who are in 5th - 8th grade and their family members (N=24, 12 youth, 12 adults 18+) to participate in three talking circle sessions to obtain feedback on the cultural adaptation and implementation of the treatment. Next, the investigators will conduct an open label pilot (N=9). Youth and their family members, (up to 3 per youth) will provide qualitative and quantitative feedback after each session. In Stage 1b, 60 youth will participate in a pilot randomized controlled trial, testing the efficacy of the newly created program (n=30) against a wait list control (WLC) condition (n=30). Ultimately, this program of research is expected to result in a well-specified, efficacious prevention program that could be readily disseminated and generalizable to other Indigenous populations with minimal adaptation. Read Less

Previous research, including that of this team, shows that a significant portion of those regularly using opioids-particularly filling opioids at community pharmacies-also are involved in the co-use of alcohol. This study proposes to adapt a previously developed intervention for opioid medication misuse; test its acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy; and identify barriers and facilitators to large-scale research and system-level implementation. Results of this study will directly inform a fully-powered subsequent multisite trial. Read Less

Responsible beverage service (RBS) training for alcohol servers is a promising intervention for reducing driving while intoxicated (DWI) by alcohol. Training, certification, and in-service contact improves professionalism and effectiveness of prevention interventions delivered by community members such as alcohol servers. This SBIR Fast-track project will develop and test an in-service professional development component to the WayToServe® online RBS training to improve the effectiveness of RBS training in order to make further gains in reducing problem alcohol behavior in communities. 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 research study is to understand people's alcohol use in public places and their risks for harm. The overall goal of this study is to test the effects of subsidized ridesharing as an intervention to reduce self-reported alcohol-impaired driving, along with alcohol consumption and changes to mobility. Read Less

This project will test the effects of a telehealth counseling program on reducing alcohol use and improving HIV viral control among people with HIV who drink heavily. In total, 600 heavy drinkers with HIV will be assigned to either (a) a single session of brief counseling on alcohol use or (b) brief counseling plus referral to a telehealth counseling program that includes multiple sessions of counseling by videoconferencing and text messaging support. To understand the effects of the program, participants' alcohol use, HIV outcomes, and health will be assessed over a 2-year period. 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

The investigators will conduct a waitlist control trial to test the efficacy of the Journey of Transformation-Native Youth Health Leadership Program (JOT) in terms of delaying or reducing tobacco and other substance use and improving sexual health. Read Less

This is the first stage of a three-stage, NIH-funded study to develop and test initially a multi-modal intervention concerning blood/breath alcohol concentration for young adults. The multimodal intervention will be made up of brief telehealth counseling and psychoeducation and use of three mobile technologies to facilitate moderate drinking. In the first stage of the study, we will conduct formative research to obtain input from the study population, test initially the telehealth version of the brief counseling and psychoeducation and to develop a simple, "low tech" approach to coaching participants to use the three mobile technologies in typical drinking situations. Participation will last approximately one month. 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 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

Alcohol is one of the most widely used intoxicants. The effects of driving while intoxicated are well documented, leading to the laws and regulations behind drunk driving. Marijuana is also a commonly abused drug, whose use is increasing with widespread legalization/decriminalization in many US states and use of medical marijuana. Marijuana use is linked to cognitive impairment and is likely be the cause of intoxication-induced accidents. The effects of marijuana intoxication on driving impairments are less documented than those of alcohol. However, most marijuana users also consume alcohol when smoking cannabis, and preliminary data strongly suggest that driving impairment from both drugs used together is synergistic rather than just additive. This study will aim to investigate the brain and behavior in the same individuals, using a similar design to the current Neuroscience of Marijuana Impaired Driving and the prior Alcohol and Driving Grant, that used similar techniques and measures to quantify drunk automobile driving. We hypothesize that alcohol and marijuana use combined will lead to greater impairment in a simulated driving task, as well as other driving-related cognitive impairments. In a randomized, counterbalanced, double-blind study, we will dose participants with alcohol to a legal level of 0.05% blood alcohol content, then we will administer a moderate inhaled dose of THC marijuana or placebo marijuana, using paced inhalation that employees a vaporizer. Participants will comprise 10 regular alcohol and marijuana consumers aged 21 to 40 years of age; all participants must report smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol together. Of the 10, 5 will be occasional marijuana smokers and 5 frequent marijuana smokers. Following this dosing, we will assess impairment through cognitive testing as well as a simulated driving test through fMRI and neuropsychological tests. Samples of breath, blood and oral fluid will also be collected at multiple time points throughout the study visits to be measured for alcohol and THC concentration and its metabolites. This allows clarification between the relationship of impairment, as well as subjective and objective intoxication, and levels of THC and its metabolites in the users system. Read Less