Enhancing Prospective Thinking in Early Recovery (NERF)

Indiana University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol Use Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: High-Intensity Cue; Behavioral: Low-Intensity Cue

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06283446

1805574553 Aims 11-13;

1R21AA029760-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the prosocial effects of personally-relevant, high-intensity episodic future-thinking (EFT) cues in alcohol use disorder persons and related brain mechanisms. The main question[s] this trial aims to answer are:

Will high-intensity EFT cues will produce greater delayed reward preference than low-intensity cues? Will high-intensity EFT cues effect greater treatment-seeking interest? Will high-intensity EFT cues elicit greater response in regions for prospective thinking during delay discounting (vs. low-intensity) Will nucleus accumbens-precuneus resting connectivity correlate with behavioral SS? Will the novel behavioral SS decision-making task activate the nucleus accumbens? Researchers will compare the experimental (high-intensity group) and control (low-intensity) groups to see if there are differences in the results for the questions outlined above.

Enrollment: 58 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Abstinence between 30 days ≤ 1 year
• Verbal endorsement of commitment to recovery
• English comprehension

Exclusion criteria

• Unstable medical disorders
• Outside the age range of 18-60
• Habitual substance or alcohol use
• Smell/taste disorders
• Unstable psychiatric conditions

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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58 participants in 2 patient groups

High-Intensity

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive high-intensity episodic future-thinking cue images, and high-intensity episodic recent-thinking cue images during an MRI decision-making task.

Treatment:

Behavioral: High-Intensity Cue

Low-Intensity (Control)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will receive low-intensity episodic future-thinking cue images, and low-intensity episodic recent-thinking cue images during an MRI decision-making task.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Low-Intensity Cue