MedPath

Study of Familiarity in Alcohol Dependence

Terminated
Conditions
Alcohol Dependence
Registration Number
NCT02881424
Lead Sponsor
University Hospital, Lille
Brief Summary

Background:

Alcohol-dependence is a chronic disease with a high risk of relapse. The main therapeutic outcome relies on relapse prevention which seeks to identify high risk situations and individual's response to these situations especially the emotional response to social environment. Alcohol-dependence also induces cognitive impairments leading to social cognition impairments increasing the risk of relapse.

Familiarity is a key process in social interactions: it induces the feeling of prior knowledge of a stimulus without remembering consciously its identity. Followed by a second process based on the contribution of contextual information (recollection) familiarity allows face recognition.

Main aim:

Study of familiarity for faces in alcohol-dependence

Secondary objectives:

Highlighting correlations between familiarity impairments and clinical outcomes

Detailed Description

Familiarity will be tested by a specific familiarity task using an original paradigm. This paradigm allows the analysis of familiarity as a quantitative process as well as the analysis of personal familiarity to each subject. Three familiar and three unfamiliar faces are morphed in pairs for each participant. The displayed stimuli for each pair of faces are ten morphs with 5 to 95% of familiar face increasing by 10%. Participants are asked to press a button if the displayed stimulus seems familiar. At the end of the task each participant is asked to name the identity of the familiar faces (true or false recognitions, true or false omissions).

Each participant will undergo 2 visits.

* First visit:

* Checking the inclusion and non-inclusion criteria

* Clinical report and alcohol consumption evaluation

* Standardized psychiatric interview (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview - MINI)

* Neuropsychological tests (Montreal Cognitive Assessment - MoCA, "Batterie Rapide d'Efficience Frontale" - BREF, "Rappel Libre et Rappel Indicé à 16 items" - Grober \& Buschke 's test - RL/RI 16)

* Second visit:

* Checking the non-consumption of alcohol and other drugs (cannabis, amphetamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, opioid)

* Task of familiarity with a controlling task

* Social cognition test (Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition - MASC)

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
TERMINATED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
42
Inclusion Criteria
  • For all participants:

    • With normal vision with or without glasses
    • Understanding the Note of information and signing the consent form
  • For alcohol-dependent patients:

    • Being diagnosed with severe alcohol addiction (according to DSM-5)
    • Currently abstinent
  • For control subjects:

    • Exclusion of severe alcohol addiction's diagnosis (according to DSM-5)
    • Without antecedent or current neurologic disease
    • Without antecedent or current psychiatric disease
    • Non-taking psychotropic drugs
Exclusion Criteria
  • For all participants:

    • Pregnant or breast-feeding women
    • Cognitive impairment detected by a MoCA score inferior to < 26/30
    • Physically or mentally not able to pass the tests of the study
    • Taking an unauthorized drug the month before entering the study (other psychotropic drugs than the ones used for withdrawal or alcohol related complications for patients and any psychotropic drug for control subject)
    • Being diagnosed with a severe addiction other than to caffeine or tobacco (according to DSM-5)
    • Criteria for a plausible fetal alcohol syndrome
  • For alcohol-dependent patients:

    • Being diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (according to DSM-5)

Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Familiarity threshold3 years

calculated from the psychometric function of each participant

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
BREF score3 years

neuropsychological score

concomitant treatment3 years

concomitant treatment posology

MocA score3 years

Score at the Montreal Cognitive Assessment

RL/RI score3 years

neuropsychological score

non-consumption of alcohol duration3 years

non-consumption of alcohol duration

social cognition test3 years

social cognition test score

Alcohol consumption3 years

alcohol consumption evaluation

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

University Hospital, Lille - CSAPA

🇫🇷

Lille, France

University Hospital, Lille - Fontan 2

🇫🇷

Lille, France

University Hospital, Lille - CSAPA
🇫🇷Lille, France

MedPath

Empowering clinical research with data-driven insights and AI-powered tools.

© 2025 MedPath, Inc. All rights reserved.