Anxiety During Abstinence in AUD

Summary

The goal of this study is to better understand the underlying neurobiological basis of anxiety that emerges during abstinence in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. To characterize anxiety itself as well as anxiety related-neurobiological circuitry in early abstinence in AUD 2. To examine how anxiety and anxiety related-neurobiological circuitry change over the course of abstinence in AUD Researchers will recruit both participants with AUD and healthy volunteers. The participants with AUD will be prescribed disulfiram, a medication that helps participants with AUD stay abstinent. Healthy volunteers will not receive antabuse. Patients with AUD will undergo fMRI scanning both after 1 week and 3 months of disulfiram treatment. Healthy volunteers will undergo fMRI once.

Timeline

Start

2025-09-15

Primary completion

2029-08-30

Completion

2029-08-30

Publications

• Background Anker JJ, Kushner MG, Thuras P, Menk J, Unruh AS. Drinking to cope with negative emotions moderates alcohol use disorder treatment response in patients with co-occurring anxiety disorder. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016 Feb 1;159:93-100. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.11.031. Epub 2015 Dec 11.
• Background Anker JJ, Kushner MG. Co-Occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and Anxiety: Bridging Psychiatric, Psychological, and Neurobiological Perspectives. Alcohol Res. 2019 Dec 30;40(1):arcr.v40.1.03. doi: 10.35946/arcr.v40.1.03. eCollection 2019.
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• Background Centanni SW, Morris BD, Luchsinger JR, Bedse G, Fetterly TL, Patel S, Winder DG. Endocannabinoid control of the insular-bed nucleus of the stria terminalis circuit regulates negative affective behavior associated with alcohol abstinence. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2019 Feb;44(3):526-537. doi: 10.1038/s41386-018-0257-8. Epub 2018 Nov 2.
• Background Clauss JA, Avery SN, Benningfield MM, Blackford JU. Social anxiety is associated with BNST response to unpredictability. Depress Anxiety. 2019 Aug;36(8):666-675. doi: 10.1002/da.22891. Epub 2019 Apr 6.
• Background Agarwal R, Sharma SK, Malaviya AN. Gold-induced hypersensitivity pneumonitis in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 1989 Jan-Feb;7(1):89-90.
• Background Driessen M, Meier S, Hill A, Wetterling T, Lange W, Junghanns K. The course of anxiety, depression and drinking behaviours after completed detoxification in alcoholics with and without comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders. Alcohol Alcohol. 2001 May-Jun;36(3):249-55. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/36.3.249.
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• Background Flook EA, Feola B, Avery SN, Winder DG, Woodward ND, Heckers S, Blackford JU. BNST-insula structural connectivity in humans. Neuroimage. 2020 Apr 15;210:116555. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116555. Epub 2020 Jan 16.
• Background Joutsa J, Moussawi K, Siddiqi SH, Abdolahi A, Drew W, Cohen AL, Ross TJ, Deshpande HU, Wang HZ, Bruss J, Stein EA, Volkow ND, Grafman JH, van Wijngaarden E, Boes AD, Fox MD. Brain lesions disrupting addiction map to a common human brain circuit. Nat Med. 2022 Jun;28(6):1249-1255. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01834-y. Epub 2022 Jun 13.
• Background Kushner MG, Abrams K, Thuras P, Hanson KL, Brekke M, Sletten S. Follow-up study of anxiety disorder and alcohol dependence in comorbid alcoholism treatment patients. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2005 Aug;29(8):1432-43. doi: 10.1097/01.alc.0000175072.17623.f8.
• Background Schuckit MA, Hesselbrock V. Alcohol dependence and anxiety disorders: what is the relationship? Am J Psychiatry. 1994 Dec;151(12):1723-34. doi: 10.1176/ajp.151.12.1723.
• Background Schuckit MA, Irwin M, Brown SA. The history of anxiety symptoms among 171 primary alcoholics. J Stud Alcohol. 1990 Jan;51(1):34-41. doi: 10.15288/jsa.1990.51.34.
• Background Skinner MD, Lahmek P, Pham H, Aubin HJ. Disulfiram efficacy in the treatment of alcohol dependence: a meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2014 Feb 10;9(2):e87366. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087366. eCollection 2014.
• Background Srivastava AB, Sanchez-Pena J, Levin FR, Mariani JJ, Patel GH, Naqvi NH. Drinking reduction during cognitive behavioral therapy for alcohol use disorder is associated with a reduction in anterior insula-bed nucleus of the stria terminalis resting-state functional connectivity. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2021 Aug;45(8):1596-1606. doi: 10.1111/acer.14661. Epub 2021 Aug 2.
• Background Theiss JD, Ridgewell C, McHugo M, Heckers S, Blackford JU. Manual segmentation of the human bed nucleus of the stria terminalis using 3T MRI. Neuroimage. 2017 Feb 1;146:288-292. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.11.047. Epub 2016 Nov 19.
• Background Wilcox CE, Dekonenko CJ, Mayer AR, Bogenschutz MP, Turner JA. Cognitive control in alcohol use disorder: deficits and clinical relevance. Rev Neurosci. 2014;25(1):1-24. doi: 10.1515/revneuro-2013-0054.

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