Alcohol dependence Alcoholafhankelijkheid
Conditions
Interventions
The working memory training (WMT) used in the present study is based on the exact same tasks used in the study of Houben, Wiers and Jansen (2011) and the results of this study were promising. The part
2. Backward digit span: During this task, a sequence of numbers will be presented on
the computer screen. Participants have to reproduce this sequence in reversed order,
using either the computer mous
3. Letter span task: During this task, a sequence of letters will be presented on the
computer screen in a circle. One of the positions in this circle is the be indicated and participants have to repr
Sponsors
Maastricht University
Mondriaan Zorggroep
Eligibility
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Alcohol dependence: diagnosed according to criteria DSM IV (American Psychiatric Association, 2000); 2. Participants will be screened with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al.1993), and are only allowed to participate when they score 8 or higher on the AUDIT (i.e., the cut-off score for hazardous drinking; Saunders et al. 1993); 3. Age over 18 years; 4. A minimum of 4 years of formal schooling and no history of mental retardation; 5. Native Dutch speaker; 6. Mental competency to give informed consent. Mental competency as defined by the Dutch law (WGBO: Wet of Geneeskundige Behandel Overeenkomst) is determined by the medical specialist (e.g. psychiatrist) based on the patient’s health record, observations and conversation with the regular therapist. If necessary, the psychiatrist will have a short conversation with the patient. The concerning psychiatrists are: Dr. Michael Wellner, Dr. Robert Hilse, Dr. Claudia Decker and Dr. An Joos. They are all employees of Addiction Care of the Mondriaan Zorggroep; 7. Participants must have access (preferable at their own home) to a computer with an internet connection.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. AUDIT score lower than 8 (the cut-off score for hazardous drinking; Saunders et al. 1993); 2. History of acquired brain injury (e.g. cerebral contusion, cerebrovascular accident); 3. Participants who show signs of poor compliance (e.g. not completing a session in time and session loss) and/or poor response on the questionnaires will be excluded from the experiment by the researchers; 4. Polydrug users, people who use more than one drug, are excluded from the study.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Working memory performance: See interventions for the description of the tasks; 2. Automatic impulses: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) will be used as an index of automatic impulses to drink alcohol; automatic (or implicit) preferences for alcohol will be measured (Greenwald et al. 1998; Houben & Wiers 2009). The IAT is a reaction time task that required participants to sort stimuli into two target categories, alcohol and soft drink and two attribute categories, pleasant and unpleasant. Items representing the four categories will be presented one at a time, and participants have to categorize them as quickly as possible. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Alcohol use; 2. Relapse rate; 3. Executive functioning; 4. Control; 5. Approach/avoidance of alcohol; 6. Craving; 7. Self-efficacy; 8. Motivation; 9. Intelligence; 10. Psychological state; 11. Memory. | — |
Contacts
Public ContactKay Deckers
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience Maastricht University
Outcome results
None listed