Gut Health and the Effect on Substance and Alcohol Cravings

September 5, 2023 updated by: Anna McCarthy, City Rescue Mission Medical Clinic
Gut health has been linked with improvement in mental health but no research has been done to evaluate if improving gut health can have an effect on alcohol and substance cravings. This pilot study is to evaluate if any decrease in cravings can be found with probiotics/prebiotics by improving gut health. Participants will take a pre-survey to evaluate their cravings. Participants will then be started on a regimen of probiotic and prebiotic with a pickle daily for 30 days to improve gut health. Then participants will take the same survey to evaluate if there has been any decrease in cravings.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Consent and a pre survey on cravings will be collected. Then participants will take a probiotic/prebiotic and a pickle for 30 days. Participants will be given a probiotic formula by Rugby Health that has Bacillus Coagulans spores 1billion colony forming unit and inulin 250mg along with a pickle daily for 30 days. After 30 days the same survey will be taken by the participants and a paired t test will be used to analyze if there is a statistical change in cravings. Participants will be in a recovery program with a prior history of substance or alcohol abuse and will be abstaining from drugs and alcohol.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate if improving gut health by the above intervention can also decrease substance and alcohol cravings. Probiotics and prebiotics have been shown to improve mental health with a decrease in depression and PTSD but no studies have investigated if improving gut health can decrease substance or alcohol cravings. Probiotics are a cheap intervention that many recovery centers with limited recourses would be able to use. Fermented foods like pickles have been shown to have significant benefit to gut health with improvement in the gut biome. Pickles are also affordable which is why this combination was chosen to be studied.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

30

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

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

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Males and females age 18-75 years old
  • current cravings for substance or alcohol use
  • enrolled in a recovery clinic
  • able to understand and comply with the requirements of the study
  • provision of written informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any alcohol or substance use in the past week
  • any narcotic use (including methadone and buprenorphine)
  • daily probiotic product use in the last 2 weeks
  • women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant during the trial
  • if they already have no alcohol or substance cravings
  • non English speakers.

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Gut Health Surveys
Participants will take a pre-survey to evaluate their cravings. They will then be started on a regimen of probiotic and prebiotic with a pickle daily for 30 days to improve gut health. Then participants will take the same survey to evaluate if there has been any decrease in cravings.
Dietary supplement: probiotic and pickle
probiotic formula by Rugby Health that has Bacillus Coagulans spores 1billion CFU and inulin 250mg along with a pickle

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Decrease in substance or alcohol cravings
Time Frame: 30 days

Evaluation via the same survey before and after probiotic and a pickle for 30 days to see if there is any change in cravings.

A pre and post survey will be administered with cravings rated with a scale of 1-5, no cravings would be the number one to extreme cravings with a number of 5. A paired t-test will then be used to analyze the data.
30 days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

City Rescue Mission Medical Clinic

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Anna McCarthy, MD MPH, City Rescue Mission Medical Clinic

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 (Estimated)

September 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2023

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 25, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 5, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

September 7, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 7, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 5, 2023

Last Verified

September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • #23-MCCA-101

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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