Alcohol & Exercise Study (Alc-Excr)

The Effect of an Acute Exercise Intervention on Alcohol Craving and Alcohol Seeking Behaviors Among Heavy Social Drinkers

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if exercise can reduce alcohol craving in heavy social alcohol drinkers. The main questions this project aims to answer are 1) compared to a distraction activity (i.e., coloring), will mild-to-moderate intensity exercise (i.e., walking on a treadmill) reduce alcohol craving; 2) compared to a distraction, will mild-to-moderate intensity exercise reduce the amount of consumption of an alcohol-placebo beverage.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Alcohol-Related Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Coloring; Behavioral: Exercise

Detailed Description

Upon arriving to the study, participants will complete baseline measures assessing for the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as baseline alcohol craving and subjective response measures. Participants will then be randomly assigned into the active treatment (exercise) or distraction (coloring) condition. After randomization, participants will consume a low-dose alcohol beverage (BAC=0.03g/dL; equivalent to approximately 1 standard alcohol beverage) within five minutes to induce active alcohol craving. 15 minutes post-beverage consumption, participants will complete the alcohol craving and subjective response measures. At 20 minutes post-beverage consumption, participants will begin their randomly assigned 20-minute activity (exercise or coloring). At approximately 12 minutes into the activity (32 minutes post beverage consumption) and immediately after the activity (44 minutes post beverage consumption), the participants will complete the alcohol craving and subjective response measures. Participants will then be given a tray of three 8oz. cups of water and 3 8oz. cups of an alcohol-placebo beverage and will be allowed to drink as much or as little of the beverages as they would like.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 68
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7
      • Western University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Heavy social alcohol drinkers (i.e., alcohol drinkers who consume 10-40 standard alcohol beverages per week and participate in 1-5 binge drinking episodes [consume 4+/5+ drinks in a sitting for women/men, respectively]) per week.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Meets DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for a current moderate or severe alcohol use disorder
• Meets DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for a current Moderate or Severe cannabis use disorder
• Endorses daily smoking of tobacco
• Endorses having a current DSM-5 psychiatric disorder
• Endorses having any medical conditions that may interfere with the exercise condition (e.g., knee-replacement, sprained ankle, etc.)
• Has a current level of physical activity that exceeds 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day
• Endorses illicit substance use (i.e., use of illicit substances x>2 times in the past year)
• Has self-reported allergies to pineapple juice, cranberry juice, orange juice, &/or tonic water
• Individuals not proficient in reading, writing, or speaking in English
• Women who are trying to conceive or who are pregnant
• Women who are currently breastfeeding

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Coloring; Coloring in an adult coloring book as a distraction activity	Behavioral: Coloring; 20 minutes of coloring in adult coloring book
Experimental: Exercise; Moderate intensity treadmill walking (40%-59% of heartrate reserve).	Behavioral: Exercise; 20 minutes of Moderate intensity (40%-59% heartrate reserve) walking on a treadmill.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in alcohol craving after alcohol prime dose	It is expected that the exercise condition will lead to larger reductions in alcohol craving (Alcohol Urge Questionnaire) at the mid- and post-intervention time points as compared to the coloring condition.	mid-intervention (32 minutes after prime dose consumption) & post-intervention (44 minutes after prime dose consumption)
Post-intervention alcohol beverage consumption	It is expected that individuals in the exercise condition will consume more of the alcohol-placebo beverage (milliliters of beverage consumed) than individuals in the coloring condition.	Post-intervention (approximately 50 minutes after prime dose consumption)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in alcohol wanting after alcohol prime dose	It is expected that the exercise condition will lead to larger reductions in alcohol wanting (Drug Effects Questionnaire: Want More item) at the mid- and post-intervention time points as compared to the coloring condition.	mid-intervention (32 minutes after prime dose consumption) & post-intervention (44 minutes after prime dose consumption)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Western University, Canada
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jesus Chavarria, Ph.D., Western University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 14, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): July 14, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 13, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 13, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): July 21, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 20, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 18, 2025
• Last Verified: July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Exercise; Alcohol; Alcohol Craving; Heavy Drinkers
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Alcohol-Related Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 0000055296

Drug and device information, study documents

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