Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) in Heroin Addiction (MORE)

July 22, 2026 updated by: Rita Goldstein, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Neuroimaging Response Inhibition and Salience Attribution Changes During Mindfulness-based Treatment of Human Heroin Addiction

In this study, neuroimaging of reward processing, drug cue reactivity and inhibitory control is used before and immediately after 8 weeks of two types of group therapy in individuals with opioid addiction; clinical outcomes will be assessed before, immediately and three months after treatment. Results could point to factors that track and predict recovery with treatment, offering clinicians markers that can be used for enhancing precision medicine with the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality associated with opiate addiction.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Over the past 15 years, the US has been affected by increasing prescription and illicit opiate/opioid abuse, addiction, and overdose. Research into the enhancement of treatment options for individuals with opiate/opioid use disorder (iOUD) is clearly a priority. The development of neuroscience-informed behavioral therapies that could be used as adjuncts to improve effectiveness of medication-assisted interventions in iOUD is a national priority, a response to the opiate crisis. This study measures the neural correlates of cognitive function and reward processing as potentially contributing to and predictive of the impact of an 8-week group therapy on addiction outcome in iOUD. Using a pre-post randomized treatment design with a 3-months follow-up, this study will examine the impact of group therapy, as add-on to methadone maintenance, on neural functional and structural plasticity, and clinical outcomes (including daily ecological momentary assessments), in treatment-seeking iOUD (with primary use of heroin). Treatment-seeking iOUD will be randomized to 8-weeks of one of two of group therapies and scanned with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) immediately before and after treatment. Healthy controls will be scanned at similar time intervals. Clinical outcome will be assessed during, immediately after and 3-months after therapy. Results may help identify individual variability in the brain regions/circuits that support reward processing, including cue reactivity, and inhibitory control and that could change with, and predict, response to treatment, ultimately contributing to precision medicine in OUD.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
157

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10029
        • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 64 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Ability to understand and give informed consent
  • Males and Females 18-64 years of age
  • DSM-5 diagnosis of OUD with heroin as the primary drug of choice
  • Stabilized on methadone or other form of MAT.

Inclusion criteria for healthy controls:

- The same as inclusion criteria 1-2 above; dependence on nicotine or caffeine is non-exclusionary.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • DSM-5 diagnosis for schizophrenia or developmental disorder (e.g., autism)
  • Head trauma with loss of consciousness
  • History of neurological disease of central origin including seizures
  • Cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure and/or other medical conditions, including metabolic, endocrinological,oncological or autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases common in iOUD including Hepatitis B and C or HIV/AIDS
  • Metal implants or other MR contraindications

Exclusion criteria for healthy control subjects:

- The same, except history of any drug use disorder is prohibitive.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Behavioral group therapy 1
8-weeks of group therapy
Behavioral: Behavioral group therapy #1
Participants will participate in an 8-weeks of group therapy that uses psychological principles including mindfulness training, and could help decrease cravings for heroin and increase general well-being.
Active Comparator: Behavioral group therapy 2
8-weeks of group therapy
Behavioral: Behavioral group therapy #2
Participants will participate in an 8-weeks of group therapy that uses psychological principles (but not including mindfulness training) and could help decrease craving for heroin and increase general well-being.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in fMRI BOLD signal during tasks of reward
Time Frame: baseline and 3 months after enrollment
Change in fMRI blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal acquired during tasks of reward at the 2nd MRI conducted immediately after the 8-week group therapy (about 3 months after enrollment) as compared to baseline MRI. The reward task uses symbols of gain/win and has been shown to elicit BOLD activations in the brain's reward network.
baseline and 3 months after enrollment
Change in fMRI BOLD signal for control reactivity
Time Frame: baseline and 3 months enrollment
Change in fMRI blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal acquired during control reactivity at the 2nd MRI conducted immediately after the 8-week group therapy (about 3 months after enrollment) as compared to baseline MRI.
baseline and 3 months enrollment
Change in fMRI BOLD signal for cue reactivity
Time Frame: baseline and 3 months enrollment
Change in fMRI blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal acquired during cue reactivity at the 2nd MRI conducted immediately after the 8-week group therapy (about 3 months after enrollment) as compared to baseline MRI.
baseline and 3 months enrollment
Change in fMRI BOLD signal acquired during resting-state functional connectivity
Time Frame: baseline and 3 months after treatment
Change in fMRI blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal acquired during resting-state functional connectivity at the 2nd MRI conducted immediately after the 8-week group therapy (about 3 months after enrollment) as compared to baseline MRI. This method captures the synchronicity of low-frequency, spontaneous fluctuations in blood oxygen level-dependent signals that reflect fluctuations in neuronal activity between brain regions in the absence of external stimulation.
baseline and 3 months after treatment
Change in MRI Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) measure
Time Frame: baseline and 3 months after treatment
Change in MRI VBM measure for grey matter volume at the 2nd MRI conducted immediately after the 8-week group therapy (about 3 months after enrollment) as compared to baseline MRI. Voxel Based Morphometry is a whole-brain, fully automated, unbiased, MRI analysis technique used to detect regionally specific differences in brain tissue composition using a voxel-wise comparison across participants.
baseline and 3 months after treatment
Change in Urine drug test
Time Frame: baseline and 3 months after treatment
Urine drug test at 3 months after treatment as compared to baseline
baseline and 3 months after treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
University of Utah

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Rita Goldstein, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • Study Director: Nelly Alia-Klein, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
June 21, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
September 11, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
September 11, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
September 30, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 30, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
October 2, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
July 24, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 22, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • GCO 18-0878
  • 1R01AT010627-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Relevant data collected during the trial, after deidentification.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Immediately following publication. No end date.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal.Any purpose.Proposals should be directed to rita.goldstein@mssm.edu. To gain access, data requestors will need to sign a data access agreement.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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