Spironolactone in Alcohol Use Disorder (SAUD)

Summary

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects about 29.5 million people in the United States. Only 3 medicines have been approved by Food and Drug Administration to treat AUD. Researchers want to find better treatments for AUD. Animal studies found that a medicine called spironolactone, may decrease the amount of alcohol the animals drank. Spironolactone is approved to treat high blood pressure, or heart failure in people. It is not approved to treat AUD. Objective: To test a medicine (spironolactone) in people who sometimes drink excessive alcohol in order to understand how the body breaks down spironolactone and if there are any side effects in people who drink alcohol while taking this medicine. Eligibility: People aged 21 and older with AUD. Design: Participants will have 4 separate 7-day stays at a clinic in Baltimore over 2 months. Spironolactone is a capsule you swallow. Participants will take a capsule twice a day for 5 days during each clinic stay. During 1 of their 4 stays, they will take a placebo instead of the medicine. The placebo capsule looks just like the spironolactone capsule but contains no medicine. Participants will not know when they are taking the medicine or the placebo. Participants will not drink alcohol until day 6 of each clinic stay. Then they will be asked to drink alcohol in a bar-like area in the clinic. Their breath and blood alcohol levels and their well-being will be measured. Participants will undergo other tests in the clinic: A DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan uses X-rays to measure bone density and muscle mass. Participants will lie on an open-top, padded table, then a small arm will scan the full length of their body. The radiation participants will get in this study is about the same as from one regular x-ray. Blood tests. Participants may feel some discomfort at the site of needle entry. Electrocardiogram. This test records the heart activity. Sensors are attached to the skin with stickers and removed after a few minutes. Urine tests. All urine will be collected over a 3-day period during each stay. We will measure the amount of urine, and different hormones and salts in the urine. Questionnaires and tasks. Participants will answer questions about their alcohol use. They will perform tasks to test mood, craving, mental and physical coordination, and how much they feel an effect from alcohol after drinking.

Timeline

Start

2023-07-13

Primary completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2027-04-30

Publications

• Background Leko AH, McGinn MA, Farokhnia M. The Mineralocorticoid Receptor: An Emerging Pharmacotherapeutic Target for Alcohol Use Disorder? ACS Chem Neurosci. 2022 Jul 6;13(13):1832-1834. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.2c00326. Epub 2022 Jun 24.
• Background Farokhnia M, Rentsch CT, Chuong V, McGinn MA, Elvig SK, Douglass EA, Gonzalez LA, Sanfilippo JE, Marchette RCN, Tunstall BJ, Fiellin DA, Koob GF, Justice AC, Leggio L, Vendruscolo LF. Spironolactone as a potential new pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder: convergent evidence from rodent and human studies. Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Nov;27(11):4642-4652. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01736-y. Epub 2022 Sep 20.
• Background Palzes VA, Farokhnia M, Kline-Simon AH, Elson J, Sterling S, Leggio L, Weisner C, Chi FW. Effectiveness of spironolactone dispensation in reducing weekly alcohol use: a retrospective high-dimensional propensity score-matched cohort study. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2021 Nov;46(12):2140-2147. doi: 10.1038/s41386-021-01117-z. Epub 2021 Aug 2.
• Background Aoun EG, Jimenez VA, Vendruscolo LF, Walter NAR, Barbier E, Ferrulli A, Haass-Koffler CL, Darakjian P, Lee MR, Addolorato G, Heilig M, Hitzemann R, Koob GF, Grant KA, Leggio L. A relationship between the aldosterone-mineralocorticoid receptor pathway and alcohol drinking: preliminary translational findings across rats, monkeys and humans. Mol Psychiatry. 2018 Jun;23(6):1466-1473. doi: 10.1038/mp.2017.97. Epub 2017 May 2.
• Background Leggio L, Ferrulli A, Cardone S, Miceli A, Kenna GA, Gasbarrini G, Swift RM, Addolorato G. Renin and aldosterone but not the natriuretic peptide correlate with obsessive craving in medium-term abstinent alcohol-dependent patients: a longitudinal study. Alcohol. 2008 Aug;42(5):375-81. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2008.03.128. Epub 2008 May 16.

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