Real-world Experiences of Alcohol and Cognitions Over Time (REACT)

University of Washington

Status

Completed

Conditions

Alcohol Intoxication

Treatments

Other: Alcohol

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

NIH

Identifiers

NCT06579521

STUDY00018677

R21AA029489 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine how alcohol affects young adults' attention in both laboratory and real-world settings through phone-based cognitive tasks. The main questions this trial is designed to answer are:

How well do the phone-based cognitive tasks capture alcohol's effects on attention?
Does the effect of alcohol on attention contribute to risk-taking?

Participants will complete cognitive tasks to assess attention before and after consuming a standard amount of alcohol in the laboratory, and during surveys completed through a phone app for eight weekends.

Full description

The goal of this study is to develop cognitive tasks that assess alcohol-related attentional narrowing (i.e., alcohol myopia) for smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA). In Phase I, tasks were adapted from computer to smartphone format and refined through interviews with young adults who provided feedback on mock-ups. In Phase II (the current trial), feasibility, acceptability, reliability, and validity of the adapted tasks will be tested in lab and EMA. Young adults who pass an online pre-screening and phone screening will complete an initial lab session involving self-report questionnaires, alcohol consumption (target breath alcohol concentration [BrAC] = .08%), and general cognitive and myopia-specific tasks. All participants in Phase II will be assigned to receive a dose of alcohol in the lab session; task performance will be compared within individuals from before to after they are intoxicated. Participants will remain in the lab until their BrAC reduces to a level of .03% and they can pass a field sobriety test. These same participants will then complete EMA while wearing transdermal alcohol biosensors for 8 consecutive weekends, including one morning survey and at least two evening surveys per day. Then, participants will return to the lab for a follow-up session involving self-report questions and an interview eliciting additional feedback. Findings will help to clarify the role of alcohol myopia as a mechanism linking intoxication to real-world risk behaviors.

Enrollment

92 patients

Sex

All

Ages

21 to 25 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

aged 21-25
drink at least 2x/week in the past month
at least 1 past-month heavy episodic drinking event (4+/5+ standard drinks in a day for females/males)
have an iPhone
able to read and understand English
willing to complete all study procedures

Exclusion criteria

history of alcohol-related treatment or hospitalization
medical contraindications for alcohol consumption (e.g., contraindicated medication, major psychiatric illness, history of seizure, gastric bypass surgery, cardiac pacemaker, major illness such as liver cirrhosis or hepatitis, past traumatic brain injury, asthma exacerbated by alcohol use, consistent flushing response to alcohol use) or pregnancy, nursing an infant, or plans to become pregnant in the next 8 weeks (i.e., during the EMA monitoring period)
substantial visual impairment or color blindness (given that cognitive tasks rely on visual cues)