Paroxetine for Comorbid Social Anxiety Disorder and Alcoholism

Phase 4

Completed

Conditions: Social Phobia
Alcohol Use Disorder
Alcohol Abuse
Social Anxiety Disorder
Alcohol Dependence

Interventions: Drug: Placebo
Drug: Paroxetine

Registration Number: NCT00246441

Lead Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina

Brief Summary: The purpose of the study is to determine whether an SSRI, paroxetine, improves social anxiety symptoms and alcohol use in individuals who drink to cope with social anxiety disorder.

Detailed Description: Social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia) is an Axis I anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear and avoidance of social or performance situations in which one might be scrutinized. Its onset is typically in the early teen years. It is the third most common mental disorder in the United States, exceeded in prevalence only by depression and alcoholism. Approximately 20% of the individuals with social anxiety disorder have alcohol problems. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that alcohol is used by some socially anxious individuals to self-medicate anxiety symptoms, a practice that could lead to alcohol abuse and/or dependence. The proposed project further explores the self-medication hypothesis through the use of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Paroxetine (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) is the drug to be used in the study. Individuals who drink alcohol to cope with social anxiety symptoms and who meet DSM-IV criteria for the dual-diagnoses of social anxiety disorder and alcohol use disorders will be enrolled in the trial. All individuals will be seeking treatment for social anxiety disorder. The treatment phase will last 16 weeks. Dosing will start at 20 mg/day (paroxetine or placebo) and will increase gradually to a maximum dose of 60 mg/day. Each week during treatment and at the end of the trial, assessments will be made with standard instruments to determine the effect of paroxetine (versus placebo) on social anxiety severity, alcohol use, and more specifically, the intentional use of alcohol to cope with social anxiety symptoms. Additionally, 6 month and 12 month follow-up interviews will be conducted. The overarching hypothesis is that because paroxetine will improve social anxiety severity, alcohol use and/or alcohol use for coping will also be reduced in the paroxetine-treated group.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 42

Inclusion Criteria

Meets DSM-IV criteria for current social anxiety disorder
Reports social anxiety in most situations (generalized type).
Treatment seeking for relief of social anxiety.
Meets DSM-IV criteria for current alcohol use disorder
Reads at the 6th grade level or above
Endorses using alcohol to cope with social anxiety either "very often" or "always."
Reports no prior medical alcohol detoxification
Willingness to be randomized to the placebo group
Willingness to attend 16 weekly medication management visits and one alcohol-related therapy session
Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Total score (modified version) of at least 60
Endorses drinking at least 15 standard drinks in a typical 30 day period or reports drinking heavily (defined as greater-than-or-equal-to 4 standard drinks on one occasion for women; greater-than-or-equal-to 5 standard drinks on one occasion for men, respectively) on at least 2 days in a typical 30 day period.

Exclusion Criteria

Abuse or dependence on drugs other than nicotine or marijuana in last 90 days
Current or past diagnosis of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia
Significant suicide risk as assessed by the SCID
Current use of psychotropic medications
Treatment seeking for alcohol problems
Any unstable medical condition that might interfere with safe participation in the trial
Elevated liver enzymes (3 x greater than normal levels)
History of adverse reaction to paroxetine
History of failure to respond to adequate trial or dose of paroxetine for social phobia (60 mg/day for at least 6 weeks)
History of heart problems or abnormal ECG recording
Pregnancy, nursing, or refusal to use effective birth control if sexually active and premenopausal
History of one or more alcohol detoxifications

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Placebo	Placebo	A Placebo medication that appears just like the active medication but does not contain placebo
Paroxetine	Paroxetine	Active medication containing the drug Paroxetine

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Drinking to Cope	16 weeks treatment	Drinking days that were related to coping with Social Anxiety determined by the TLFB- the proportion of drinking days that were reported to be due to coping with social anxiety. Minimum value is 0, maximum value is 1 Higher is worse.
Social Anxiety Severity	16 weeks treatment	Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) - each of the two subscales, Fear and Avoidance, each have a maximum possible score of 72 (range 0 to 72). The total score ranges from 0 to 144. A higher score indicates higher severity of Social Anxiety Disorder.
Alcohol Use, Quantity and Frequency	16 weeks treatment	Timeline Followback (TLFB), a validated calendar based instrument to assess number of standard drinks consumed on each day of the trial. Baseline measures were computed using past 30 days. From the TLFB, three measures were computed: 1. Proportion of days abstinent (PDA) (the number of days when no drinking occurred, divided by the number of days in the assessment period) (minimum is 0, maximum is 1) (higher score is better), 2. Drinks per drinking day (DDD) (the mean number of standard drinks consumed on a drinking day in the assessment period) (minimum is \>0, maximum is infinity) (higher score is worse), 3. Proportion of Heavy Drinking Days (PHD) (the proportion of days each assessment period that a woman consumed 4 or more standard drinks/ man consumed 5 or more standard drinks) (minimum is 0, maximum is 1) (higher score is worse).