Stress-related Predictor Profiles in Human Addiction

In patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) stress exposure is known to affect craving, cue-reactivity and relapse risk. Here, we aim to identify stress- and alcohol cue-related physiological markers in a lab experiment to assess interactions between acute psychological vs. physical stress exposure and alcohol cue-exposure regarding their effects on (1) alcohol craving and related markers (attentional bias to alcohol-cues, implicit association task, neural cue-reactivity), (2) their predictive capacity for future alcohol intake, (3) the identification their neural correlates in brain circuits of motivational, cognitive, and affective processing. In addition to applying established stress-related markers (cortisol in saliva, heart-rate variability, systolic blood pressure and electrodermal activity), (4) we will integrate portable sensors (wearables) to allow a future integration in ambulatory assessments and to test innovative measures currently under investigation (e.g. voice stress analysis) to identify whether these additional parameters increase the predictive significance. Our long-term aim is the definition of a setup of mobile sensors and their integration in a mobile infrastructure that allows the prediction of stress related alcohol intake in an ambulatory setting.

Inclusion criteria

• Alcohol-use disorder according to 2 DSM-V criteria not requiring detoxification: AUD subjects with mild AUD will fulfill at least 2 and not more than 5 diagnostic criteria; a second group of AUD subjects will fulfill 4-5 criteria for moderate AUD
• sufficient ability to communicate with the investigators, to answer questions in oral and written form
• fully informed consent
• written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• withdrawal of the declaration of consent
• Pregnancy
• Using hormonal contraceptives
• Perimenopausal/ postmenopausal
• positive urin drug screening (cannabis, amphetamine, opiates, benzodiazepines, cocaine)
• Lifetime history of DSM-5 bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or substance dependence other than alcohol or nicotine or cannabis dependence.
• Current threshold DSM-5 diagnosis of major depressive disorder, or presence of suicidal intention
• History of severe head trauma or other severe central nervous system disorder (e.g., dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis)
• Current use of medications or drugs known to interact with the CNS within at least four half-lives post last intake