Alcohol & Exercise Study

NCT ID: NCT05955911

Last Updated: 2025-07-20

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 68 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-12-01
• Study Completion Date: 2025-07-14

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if exercise can reduce alcohol craving in heavy social alcohol drinkers. The main questions this project aims to answer are 1) compared to a distraction activity (i.e., coloring), will mild-to-moderate intensity exercise (i.e., walking on a treadmill) reduce alcohol craving; 2) compared to a distraction, will mild-to-moderate intensity exercise reduce the amount of consumption of an alcohol-placebo beverage.

Detailed Description

Upon arriving to the study, participants will complete baseline measures assessing for the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as baseline alcohol craving and subjective response measures. Participants will then be randomly assigned into the active treatment (exercise) or distraction (coloring) condition. After randomization, participants will consume a low-dose alcohol beverage (BAC=0.03g/dL; equivalent to approximately 1 standard alcohol beverage) within five minutes to induce active alcohol craving. 15 minutes post-beverage consumption, participants will complete the alcohol craving and subjective response measures. At 20 minutes post-beverage consumption, participants will begin their randomly assigned 20-minute activity (exercise or coloring). At approximately 12 minutes into the activity (32 minutes post beverage consumption) and immediately after the activity (44 minutes post beverage consumption), the participants will complete the alcohol craving and subjective response measures. Participants will then be given a tray of three 8oz. cups of water and 3 8oz. cups of an alcohol-placebo beverage and will be allowed to drink as much or as little of the beverages as they would like.

Conditions

Alcohol-Related Disorders

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Exercise

Moderate intensity treadmill walking (40%-59% of heartrate reserve).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Exercise

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

20 minutes of Moderate intensity (40%-59% heartrate reserve) walking on a treadmill.

Coloring

Coloring in an adult coloring book as a distraction activity

Group Type: OTHER

Coloring

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

20 minutes of coloring in adult coloring book

Interventions

Exercise

20 minutes of Moderate intensity (40%-59% heartrate reserve) walking on a treadmill.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Coloring

20 minutes of coloring in adult coloring book

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Heavy social alcohol drinkers (i.e., alcohol drinkers who consume 10-40 standard alcohol beverages per week and participate in 1-5 binge drinking episodes [consume 4+/5+ drinks in a sitting for women/men, respectively]) per week.

Exclusion Criteria

• Meets DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for a current moderate or severe alcohol use disorder
• Meets DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for a current Moderate or Severe cannabis use disorder
• Endorses daily smoking of tobacco
• Endorses having a current DSM-5 psychiatric disorder
• Endorses having any medical conditions that may interfere with the exercise condition (e.g., knee-replacement, sprained ankle, etc.)
• Has a current level of physical activity that exceeds 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day
• Endorses illicit substance use (i.e., use of illicit substances x>2 times in the past year)
• Has self-reported allergies to pineapple juice, cranberry juice, orange juice, &/or tonic water
• Individuals not proficient in reading, writing, or speaking in English
• Women who are trying to conceive or who are pregnant
• Women who are currently breastfeeding

• Minimum Eligible Age: 19 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Western University, Canada

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Jesus Chavarria

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Jesus Chavarria, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Western University

Locations

Western University

London, Ontario, Canada

Countries

Canada

Other Identifiers

0000055296

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id