Computerized Exercise to Alter Stimulant Approach Responses (CEASAR)

June 18, 2021 updated by: Christian Schutz, University of British Columbia

CEASAR (Computerized Exercise to Alter Stimulant Approach Responses) - Piloting a Novel Intervention to Improve Outcomes in Individuals Suffering From Cocaine or Methamphetamine Use Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Computerized Exercise to Alter Stimulant Approach Responses (CEASAR), a novel stimulant use cessation intervention, for clients currently enrolled in a treatment centre for mental health and addiction. The investigators plan to conduct a randomized, single-blind controlled trial involving inpatients presenting with concurrent disorders to test the impact of this novel computerized intervention. This pilot study will be conducted at the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction (BCMHA) in Burnaby, BC, Canada.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Purpose: To examine a novel computerized exercise intervention as an add-on to currently available evidence-based stimulant use cessation treatments. This study will evaluate whether or not this intervention can improve stimulant use disorder outcomes in a population with concurrent disorders that are difficult to treat.

Hypothesis: 1) The intervention will be easy to integrate in the existing program. 2) Participation in the experimental (stimulant-avoidance) condition will reduce craving (as assessed by the stimulant craving questionnaire brief version), show reduction in an automatic association of activities with stimulant use and stimulant relapses (as assessed by behaviour association questionnaires) and have reduced relapses as assessed by urine drug screens in 12 weeks following initiation of the intervention.

Justification: Stimulant use disorders are among the most challenging disorders, specifically in individuals suffering from concurrent disorders or also identified as dual diagnosis. While medication is available to support the treatment of other substance use disorders (alcohol, opioids, tobacco), currently there is none to treat stimulant use disorders, such as cocaine use disorder and methamphetamine use disorder. Recently, a group in Europe developed the "retraining of automatic approach" intervention, which is based on simple mechanistic retraining for avoidance of substances. This method was successfully applied to change drinking behaviour in a sample of alcoholic inpatients. Participants respond to substance cues by initiating a distancing activity (pushing a joystick away). In contrast, healthy activities are "approached" or pulled in using the joystick. This differential activity trains participants to alter initial responses and "cognitive biases" to simply and automatically avoid substances.

Objectives: Test the hypothesis and evaluate whether or not the Computerized Exercise to Alter Stimulant Approach Responses (CEASAR) can improve stimulant use disorder outcomes in a population with concurrent disorders that are difficult to treat.

Research design: This study is a randomized, single blind, controlled trial involving in-patients with a stimulant use disorder. The participants will be split up equally into 2 groups: the active CEASAR intervention (experimental condition) and the placebo intervention (control). Patients are able to stay at the BCMHA for 6 months with the average being 4-5 months and the study will take place over 12 weeks during their stay. Both groups will use a joystick to push away ("avoid") or pull in ("approach") randomized stimulant and healthy cues presented on a computer screen. In the experimental condition, pushed pictures will exclusively be stimulant use-related pictures, while pulled pictures will be exclusively healthy. In the control condition, stimulant use-related pictures will be equally divided into push and pull conditions. Some of the cues will be visual (e.g. pictures of cocaine powder, pipes, needles etc.) and some of them will be textual (e.g. words like eight ball, rock, etc.).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

60

Phase

  • 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 Backup

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5G 3H4
        • Recruiting
        • Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

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

Ages Eligible for Study

19 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • In-patient of the Burnaby Centre of Mental Health & Addiction
  • 19 years of age or older
  • Individuals with a current stimulant use disorder (cocaine, crack cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, crystal meth), active before intake at BCMHA (as assessed by the MINI)
  • Proficiency to read and write English and competent to provide consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Individuals not stabilized enough to allow for regular participation in the intervention (determined by treating psychiatrist)

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: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Active CEASAR Intervention
Participants will be given the active CEASAR intervention where they will be trained to "avoid" cues associated with stimulant use and approach healthy cues based on the orientation of the images presented. Individuals will be asked to approach (pull in) portrait images and avoid (push away) landscape images. In the active condition, pushed pictures (landscape orientation) will exclusively be stimulant-use related pictures. Conversely, healthy images will be in the portrait orientation which will be pulled in.
Behavioral: Active CEASAR Intervention
Healthy and stimulant-use related pictures will be presented on a computer screen. Using a joystick, participants will be trained to pull in pictures that are presented in portrait orientation, and push those presented horizontally. In the active experimental condition, pushed pictures will exclusively be stimulant-related pictures.
Placebo Comparator: Placebo CEASAR
In the control condition, stimulant use-related pictures will be randomized and equally divided into push (landscape) and pull (portrait) conditions.
Behavioral: Placebo CEASAR
In the control condition, stimulant cues and healthy cues will be randomized and stimulant use-related pictures will be equally divided into push and pull conditions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in craving as assessed by the Stimulant Craving Questionnaire-Brief (SCQ-B)
Time Frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks
Changes in craving will be assessed at baseline before the intervention, and at 4, 8, and 12 weeks after. It will be assessed by the Stimulant Craving Questionnaire-Brief (SCQ-B), which uses a 7-item scale (0 = Strongly Disagree, 6 = Strongly Agree) that can produce a composite score between 0 and 6. On this scale, lower scores indicate less craving which is considered a better outcome. Higher scores indicate more craving which is considered a worse outcome.
Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Behavioural association as assessed by the Behaviour Association Scale
Time Frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks

The Behaviour Association Scale measures association of substance use with different situations.

Subscale 1, Word Associations: participants list the first word or phrase they associate with a given word. There are 13 word prompts, so the scale runs from 0 (no prompts associated with substance use) to 13 (all prompts associated with substance use). A low score is considered a better outcome because it means fewer situations are associated with substance use.

Subscale 2, Behavioral Associations: operates the same way, except that there are 20 prompts listed so the scale runs from 0-20.

These subscales are each measured on 2 dimensions, for a total of 4 dimensions to the scale.

Dimension A: Each subscale is self-coded by the participant, where the participant determines if their response is substance-use related. Dimension B: Each subscale is researcher-coded, where 2 coders determine whether or not the response is unambiguously related to substance use.
Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks
Relapse to use as assessed by weekly self-reports and urine drug screens
Time Frame: Between week 2 and week 12
Number of relapse days between week 2 and week 12 will be assessed.
Between week 2 and week 12

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of British Columbia

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Christian Schutz, MD PhD MPH, University of British Columbia

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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)

June 11, 2018

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

March 31, 2022

Study Completion (Anticipated)

March 31, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 27, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 1, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

April 4, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 21, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 18, 2021

Last Verified

June 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H16-01099

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

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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