Interactions Between Drug Effects and Environments II

Drug Contextual Conditioning With in Humans: Causes and Consequences

The purpose of the study is to determine how associations between drugs and the places where they are experienced influence drug seeking, mood and acute drug responses.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Substance-Related Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Paired; Drug: Stimulant or sedative; Drug: Placebo

Detailed Description

Learned associations between drug effects and the people, places, and paraphernalia (cues) linked with drug experiences are a major barrier to the treatment of drug addiction. These links are remarkably persistent and can cause relapse to drug taking even after long periods of abstinence. They are also key features in some of the foremost theories of addiction, yet there is little clinical evidence of how these associations are formed and how they come to profoundly control behavior. The long-term goal of this research is to understand how drug cues become powerfully linked with drug experiences and their influence on mood and behavior. In the proposed project, the investigators will use a de novo conditioning paradigm to examine the influence of drug contexts on drug seeking, mood and acute drug responses. The hypothesis is that drug-paired contexts gain motivational salience, induce approach, and alter acute subjective responses to the drug.This knowledge will lead to novel treatment strategies to counteract the effects of drug cues on mood and behavior, and also to prevent relapse.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 133
• Phase: Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60612
      • University of Illinois at Chicago

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 40 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• past use of stimulants
• bmi 19-26
• hormonal birth control for women

Exclusion Criteria:

• current or recent (Past year) history of major axis I disorder

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: OTHER
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: DOUBLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Paired; Individuals receive drug (stimulant, or sedative) on two separate occasions and placebo on two separate occasions. Individuals receive drug in only one room.	Behavioral: Paired; Drug conditioning is assessed by pairing drug administration with a given context.; Other Names: Conditioned place preference; Drug: Stimulant or sedative; CS+ for paired, CS0 for unpaired; Drug: Placebo; CS- for paired, CS0 for unpaired
OTHER: Unpaired; Individuals receive drug (stimulant, or sedative) on two separate occasions and placebo on two separate occasions. Individuals receive drug in both rooms.	Drug: Stimulant or sedative; CS+ for paired, CS0 for unpaired; Drug: Placebo; CS- for paired, CS0 for unpaired

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Time Spent in Drug-paired Room	The amount of time spent in the two testing rooms is assessed during a 10min exploration test conducted at the orientation session (pre-test) and again at the testing session (post-test). Between the pre- and post-tests, participants complete 4 drug administration sessions; 2 with 20mg MA, 2 with 0mg MA. The Paired Group always receives 20mg MA in the room they spent the least time in at pre-test, and 0mg MA in the other room. The Unpaired Group receives 20mg MA and 0mg MA once in each room. The research question is whether the Paired Group spends significantly more time in the room paired with 20mg MA in comparison to the Unpaired Group. Thus, the outcome measure is the difference in time spent in the room paired with drug administration (i.e. the room that they spent the least time in at pre-test) between pre- and post-tests (i.e., post-test time spent - pre-test time spent) which is compared between the groups. NOTE: Time spent is NOT obtained during drug administration sessions.	Measured through study completion (maximum 5 weeks).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Subjective Drug Effects	Self-reported drug effects are measured using standardized questionnaires 30min before capsule administration (baseline) and at 30min intervals after capsule administration for 4h during each drug administration session. The peak change from baseline is calculated for each session and averaged across drug and placebo sessions. A net difference is calculated by subtracting the mean peak change from baseline during placebo sessions from the mean peak change from baseline during drug (20mg MA) sessions. Outcome measure: Subjective stimulation (i.e., feeling alert, aroused, energetic) is measured using the Amphetamine scale of the Addiction Research Center Inventory. Scores range from 0-11 with greater scores indicating greater drug effects.	Self-reported drug effects are measured 30min before drug administration and at 30min intervals after drug administration for 4h during each drug administration session.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Collaborators: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Emma Childs, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): November 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): July 1, 2020
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): July 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 18, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 3, 2017
• First Posted (ACTUAL): March 9, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): May 19, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 28, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: drug cues
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Central Nervous System Depressants; Hypnotics and Sedatives
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2015-0075; R21DA033488-01A1 (NIH)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO