Substance Consumption, Personality, and Cognitive Functioning of Chess Players

Completed

• Conditions: Addiction; Alcohol; Drugs; Depression; Nicotine; Personality; Anxiety

• Registration Number: NCT06346353
• Lead Sponsor: Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim

Brief Summary

The aim of this project is to find out if there is a difference in addictive behavior, personality traits, and cognitive abilities between chess players and non-chess players.

Detailed Description

In the present planned study, tournament chess players will be compared with non-tournament chess playing individuals by means of an online survey. Among other things, the investigators want to investigate whether these groups of persons differ in various characteristics such as their consumption behavior (alcohol, tobacco, and drug use), their personality, their depressiveness and mood, or their cognitive abilities. The background is the question whether playing chess could be protective against substance use disorders or could mitigate the manifestation.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2023-02-02
• Study Start: 2024-01-31
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-03-28
• Study First Posted: 2024-04-04
• Primary Completion: 2024-05-31
• Study Completion: 2024-05-31
• Status Verified: 2025-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-28
• Last Update Posted: 2025-05-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 756

Inclusion Criteria

• all persons from the age of 18 years
• Inclusion in the group of chess players is based on the existence of a DWZ.
• Sufficient ability to answer the questionnaires

Exclusion Criteria

• None

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Inhibition capacity	baseline	Stop Signal Task (Sebastian et al., 2013)
Alcohol Use	baseline	Alcohol Use Disorders Indentification Scale (AUDIT-C), Bohn, Babor, \& Kranzler, 1995
Automatic Alcohol Craving	baseline	Craving Automated Scale - Alcohol (CAS-A), Vollstädt-Klein, Leménager, Jorde, Kiefer, \& Nakovics, 2015
Anxiety	baseline	State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI - trait Version), Spielberger, 1983
self-efficacy	baseline	Self-efficacy expectancy (SWE) Jerusalem \& Schwarzer, 1999
Substance Craving	baseline	Mannheimer Craving Scale (MACS), Nakovics, Diehl, Geiselhart, \& Mann, 2009
Severity of Nicotine Dependence	baseline	Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND), Heatherton, Kozlowski, Frecker, \& Fagerström, 1991
Smoking Consequences	baseline	Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ), Lewis-Esquerre, Rodrigue, \& Kahler, 2005
Drug Abuse	baseline	Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10), Lam et al., 2015
Personality	baseline	NEO five factor inventory (NEO-FFI), Körner et al., 2008
Depression	baseline	Beck Depressions Inventar - II (BDI-II) Kühner, Bürger, Keller, \& Hautzinger, 2007
Automatic Cigarette Craving	baseline	Craving Automated Scale - Cigarette Smoking (CAS-CS), Tan et al., 2022
coping with stress	baseline	Brief COPE, Carver, Scheier, \& Weintraub, 1989
Working Memory capacity	baseline	N-back Task (Charlet et al., 2014)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Klinik für Abhängiges Verhalten, Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit; 🇩🇪 Mannheim, Germany