Social Cognition and Executive Functions in Alcohol Use Disorders - Transverse Study

NCT ID: NCT04647422

Last Updated: 2025-02-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 216 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2020-12-09
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-05

Brief Summary

Over the past few years, researchers and clinicians have stressed the major role of executive and social cognition impairments in the development and the maintenance of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD).

Executive functions are defined as functions for behavioral control that help us to adjust the investigator's behavior in a flexible way in non-familiar, non-routine situations. Executive functions encompass different cognitive processes, such as inhibition, mental flexibility, updating, planification, abstraction, rule deduction or organization. Studies comparing AUD patients to healthy controls have shown that AUD usually is associated with a large range of deficits. More recently studies have also emphasized a weakness of executive functioning among healthy participants with a positive family history of AUD.

Social cognition refers to all cognitive processes that enable us to communicate and to interact with social environment in an appropriate manner. Among the most common social cognition sub-components are theory of mind (defined as the capacity to understand other people's mental states as for instance beliefs and desires), empathy, and emotion recognition. Emotional and interpersonal difficulties have a high prevalence in AUD and chronic alcohol consumption is often linked to social conflicts, misunderstandings, a lack of social support and isolation. Indeed, AUD patients have difficulties in understanding their own mental states and emotions as well as those of their social environment.

Few studies have investigated the interdependency between these cognitive impairments in AUD while a better understanding of the link between executive functions and social cognition seems crucial in order to better characterize the nature of AUD patients' deficits and thus their caring.

Detailed Description

The aim of the study is to describe cognitive processes (theory of mind, empathy, and emotion recognition) and executive functions (inhibition, mental flexibility) in patients with AUD and first degree relatives of patients with an AUD.

Conditions

Alcohol Use Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

AUD patients

Alcohol Use Disorder patients

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Analysis of executive functioning and of social cognition processes

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Investigation of executive and social cognition processes using a comprehensive, neuropsychological assessment, An Eye tracking investigation and Task-based MRI exams.

• Evaluation of addictive, psychiatric and neurological comorbidities.
• Neuropsychological assessment establishing the participants' cognitive profiles of executive functions and of social cognition
• An Eye tracking investigation aiming at a better understanding of participants' emotional processing
• Task-based MRI exams identifying participants' neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of executive functions and of social cognition processes

AUD controls

Healthy control participants matched to group 1

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Analysis of executive functioning and of social cognition processes

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Investigation of executive and social cognition processes using a comprehensive, neuropsychological assessment, An Eye tracking investigation and Task-based MRI exams.

• Evaluation of addictive, psychiatric and neurological comorbidities.
• Neuropsychological assessment establishing the participants' cognitive profiles of executive functions and of social cognition
• An Eye tracking investigation aiming at a better understanding of participants' emotional processing
• Task-based MRI exams identifying participants' neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of executive functions and of social cognition processes

First-degree relatives

Healthy first-degree relatives of AUD patients

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Analysis of executive functioning and of social cognition processes

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Investigation of executive and social cognition processes using a comprehensive, neuropsychological assessment, An Eye tracking investigation and Task-based MRI exams.

• Evaluation of addictive, psychiatric and neurological comorbidities.
• Neuropsychological assessment establishing the participants' cognitive profiles of executive functions and of social cognition
• An Eye tracking investigation aiming at a better understanding of participants' emotional processing
• Task-based MRI exams identifying participants' neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of executive functions and of social cognition processes

First-degree controls

Healthy control participants matched to group 3

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Analysis of executive functioning and of social cognition processes

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Investigation of executive and social cognition processes using a comprehensive, neuropsychological assessment, An Eye tracking investigation and Task-based MRI exams.

• Evaluation of addictive, psychiatric and neurological comorbidities.
• Neuropsychological assessment establishing the participants' cognitive profiles of executive functions and of social cognition
• An Eye tracking investigation aiming at a better understanding of participants' emotional processing
• Task-based MRI exams identifying participants' neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of executive functions and of social cognition processes

Interventions

Analysis of executive functioning and of social cognition processes

Investigation of executive and social cognition processes using a comprehensive, neuropsychological assessment, An Eye tracking investigation and Task-based MRI exams.

• Evaluation of addictive, psychiatric and neurological comorbidities.
• Neuropsychological assessment establishing the participants' cognitive profiles of executive functions and of social cognition
• An Eye tracking investigation aiming at a better understanding of participants' emotional processing
• Task-based MRI exams identifying participants' neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of executive functions and of social cognition processes

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients between 18 and 60 years old, men or women, following AUD treatment
• Having a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder according to DSM-5 criteria
• Patients withdrawn of alcohol for at least 15 days
• Patients being a native French speaker
• Patients enrolled in the national healthcare insurance program
• Patients consenting to participate to the study

• Participants between 18 and 60 years old, men or women
• Current and past absence of any alcohol use disorder or any other substance use disorder as defined by DSM-5 diagnostic criteria
• Participants having at least one first-degree relative presenting an alcohol use disorder (father or sibling)
• Participants being a native French speaker
• Participants enrolled in the national healthcare insurance program
• Participants consenting to participate to the study

• Participants between 18 and 60 years old, men or women
• Current and past absence of any alcohol use disorder or any other substance use disorder as defined by DSM-5 diagnostic criteria
• Participants being a native French speaker
• Participants enrolled in the national healthcare insurance program
• Participants consenting to participate to the study

Exclusion Criteria

• A diagnosis of schizophrenia, of any other chronic psychotic state, or of bipolar disorder according to DSM-5 criteria
• The presence of a current depressive episode as defined by DSM-5 criteria
• The presence of another substance use disorder during the six months preceding the study, except for tobacco dependence.
• The presence of any intellectual disability, of pervasive developmental disorders or learning difficulties (especially of dysphasia and dyspraxia)
• The presence of any neurological disorder or any other disorder affecting the central nervous system including Korsakoff syndrome or Wernicke's encephalopathy
• Having any uncorrected auditory or visual deficits

2. First-degree relatives of AUD patients

• The presence of any alcohol use disorder or any other substance use disorder as defined by DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, except for tobacco dependence
• A diagnosis of schizophrenia, of any other chronic psychotic state, or of bipolar disorder according to DSM-5 criteria
• The presence of a current depressive episode as defined by DSM-5 criteria
• The presence of any alcohol use disorder in the participant's biological mother in order to exclude fetal alcohol spectrum disorders due to prenatal alcohol intoxication
• The presence of any intellectual disability, of pervasive developmental disorders or learning difficulties (especially of dysphasia and dyspraxia)
• The presence of any neurological disorder or any other disorder affecting the central nervous system
• Participants having any uncorrected auditory or visual deficits

• The presence of any alcohol use disorder or any other substance use disorder as defined by DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, except for tobacco dependence
• A diagnosis of schizophrenia, of any other chronic psychotic state, or of bipolar disorder according to DSM-5 criteria
• The presence of a current depressive episode as defined by DSM-5 criteria
• Having any first-degree relative with alcohol use disorder (parents, siblings, children) according to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria
• The presence of any intellectual disability, of pervasive developmental disorders or learning difficulties (especially of dysphasia and dyspraxia)
• The presence of any neurological disorder or any other disorder affecting the central nervous system
• Participants having any uncorrected auditory or visual deficits

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 60 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

CHU de Reims

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Damien JOLLY

Reims, , France

Countries

France

Other Identifiers

PO20089

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id