Alcohol and Implicit Process in Sexual Risk Behavior in MSM

The current study is the first empirical investigation that directly addresses the correspondence between responses regarding indicators of risky sexual behavior while under the influence of alcohol in the laboratory and the occurrence of sexually risky behavior while under the influence of alcohol in the natural environment, by use of Ecological Sampling Methodology (ESM). The study will allow us to compare and contrast implicit and explicit assessments of sexual risk in respect to future behavior in the natural environment. The data obtained will thus provide new information regarding the external validity of alcohol administration studies of sexual risk behavior and will provide information to optimize the selection of dependent measures. The current study also represents the first attempt to test a causal model linking alcohol intoxication and risky sexual behavior as a function of both automatic, reflexive, approach tendencies and effortful, deliberative, self-control (operationalized by executive working memory in this application). The ESM study will augment the findings of the experiment by providing a detailed assessment of contextual factors that affect sexual risk behavior as well as replicating and extending the findings of the experiment to sexual risk situations in the natural environment. Finally, to our knowledge there has been only one experimental study of alcohol and sexual risk in MSM (Maisto, Palfai, Vanable, Heath, & Woolf-King, 2012), which is remarkable given that MSM have been identified as the population at highest risk to contract the HIV in the U.S. since the virus was identified in the early 1980s. Thus the proposed research is only the second attempt to add to an understanding of the connections among alcohol, cognitive processes, and sexual risk behaviors in MSM.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Alcohol Drinking; Men; Sex Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Alcohol; Other: Placebo (non-alcoholic beverage)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 260
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
      • Boston University
  • New York
    • Syracuse, New York, United States, 13244
      • Syracuse University
  • South Dakota
    • Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, 57069
      • University of South Dakota

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 19 years to 48 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants must be between the ages of 21-50
• Moderate or heavy drinkers based on classifications from the Quantity-Frequency-Variability Questionnaire (QFV; Cahalan, Cisin, & Crossley, 1969)
• Self-identify with the sexual orientation equivalent of a 3 or higher on the Kinsey Scale (Kinsey et al., 1948; Kinsey et al., 1953), a 7-point scale used to assess self-identified sexual orientation, with zero representing exclusive heterosexuality and 6 representing exclusive homosexuality.
• Participants must also have engaged in sex with other men at least once/month for the past 3 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• a) under the age of 21 or b) do not have a government issued ID or c) are not able to provide medical records or other official documents with a birthdate (e.g., birth certificate), accompanied by a photo ID
• Scores ≥ 5 on the Brief Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Brief MAST; Pokorny, Miller, & Kaplan, 1972)
• Any ASSIST substance involvement score of ≥ 27 (National Institute on Drug Abuse; http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/nmassist.pdf)
• Score ≥ 15 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8; Kroenke et al., 2009)
• 4 subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1979), Somatization, Obsession-compulsion, Paranoid ideation, and Psychoticism will be administered; Individuals experiencing severe psychological health symptoms (score > 2 on any item) will be further questioned by a research assistant in order to determine if there is psychiatric distress or problems present
• Report current medications or current medical problems (e.g., liver disorders, heart disease, HIV+ serostatus) that contraindicate alcohol use using the Medical Condition Questionnaire; Participants who confirm that they are using (i.e., have used in the past week) any prescribed drugs for which alcohol use is contraindicated (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/drug_Aa.html) will be excluded. Participants also currently regularly taking (i.e., past 24 hours) any herbals and vitamins, including sleep aids (chamomile) and herbal preparations for anxiety and depression (Kava Kava or St. John's Wort) that contraindicate alcohol use will be excluded
• Persons with cognitive and or psychomotor deficits will be excluded from the experiment (based on RA and PI determination)
• Endorse currently being in a committed, exclusive monogamous relationship
• Report treatment for emotional or substance use disorders (defined by current treatment or treatment in the past 3 months) or recent history of significant alcohol problems as indicated by inpatient/outpatient alcohol treatment or alcohol self-help group attendance (e.g., AA) within the past 3 years.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Alcohol condition; The amount of alcohol received in the alcohol condition will be determined by an algorithm developed by Curtin (Curtin, 2000). Participants in the alcohol condition will receive a dose of alcohol (target BAC = .08%), administered in a chilled beverage of 80-proof vodka mixed with tonic water and lime juice in a 1:4 ratio.	Drug: Alcohol
Placebo Comparator: Placebo condition; Placebo participants will receive tonic water and lime juice served to enhance alcohol cues in an amount comparable to the amount that they would have received if assigned to the alcohol condition.	Other: Placebo (non-alcoholic beverage)
No Intervention: Control (water); Participants in the water control condition will receive a glass of chilled water in volume of liquid comparable to the amount that they would have received if assigned to the alcohol or placebo condition.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Risk exposure	Behavioral skills and risk exposure will be measured with two interactive videos developed for the Maisto et al. (2012) experiment. For the risk exposure component, each video begins by setting a scene in which "Jim" (the protagonist) and "Dave" (the character with whom the participant will be asked to identify) meet up with each other. The participant will be asked to make a series (5 choice points) of binary choices (yes/no) about engaging in various increasingly high-risk sexual activities with Jim. Participants will receive 1 point for each time they answer "yes" and thus make a progressively risky choice. The risk exposure portion of the video will terminate with the first "no" response to the choice points. Subsequently, the participant will go to the fifth choice point to begin the behavioral skills component of the video. The risk exposure score will represent the mean score from the two interactive videos. Higher scores represent higher risk exposure scores.	Post beverage administration (completed 30-45 minutes following beverage consumption)
Behavioral skills	The behavioral skills portion of the video will require participants to negotiate sexual situations using verbal communication skills in an interactive role-play. Participants will be asked to respond first to Jim's comment that he desires to have unprotected anal sex and that there is no cause for concern because he is safe ("prompt 1") and = a second, more insistent comment that was a reminder to the participant that UAI would not be risky and would be pleasurable and that the participants could trust Jim ("prompt 2"). Participants' responses to each of the prompts will be scored on a 0-2 scale (higher score = better communication skills). The behavioral skills score will represent the mean score from the two interactive videos.	Post beverage administration (completed 30-45 minutes following beverage consumption)
Intentions to engage in unprotected sex	Intention to engage in unprotected sex after viewing each of two sexual video vignettes (Maisto et al., 2012) will be rated on a 7-point rating scale (Bishop & Maisto, 2011). The intentions to engage in unprotected sex score will represent the mean score from the two interactive videos. Higher scores represent greater intentions to engage in unprotected sex.	Post beverage administration (completed 30-45 minutes following beverage consumption)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Syracuse University
• Collaborators: Boston University; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA); University of South Dakota
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Steve A Maisto, PhD, Syracuse University; Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Simons, PhD, University of South Dakota; Principal Investigator: Tibor P.A. Palfai, PhD, Boston University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 20, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): December 4, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 23, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 22, 2021
• Last Verified: July 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: men who have sex with men
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Drinking Behavior; Alcohol Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: 14-068; R01AA022301 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: Yes