Clinical trial NCT02907853: Contingency Management for Meth in South Africa Methamphetamine Abuse in South Africa
Official title: Combating Craving With Contingency Management: Neuroplasticity and Methamphetamine Abuse in South Africa
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Methamphetamine Abuse
Lead sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Cape Town
First posted: 2016-09-20
Enrollment: 28
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 45
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study will link findings from neuroscience with clinical outcomes using contingency management (CM) to identify changes in brain structure and function that emerge during purely behavioral therapy for methamphetamine (MA) use.

Detailed description: This study will correlate MA-abstinence outcomes from an 8-week program of voucher-based incentives using an escalating schedule for 30 treatment-seeking, MA-dependent individuals with scores on tasks of working memory and assessments of neuropsychological and demographic status. At the beginning and end of the CM program, participants will participate in MRI scans while performing a working memory task and will complete a battery of select neurocognitive and psychological assays to address two specific aims: (1) to determine whether changes in neural function within frontostriatal circuitry from baseline to end of the 8-week CM program are associated with parallel changes in measures of cognitive control and impulsivity and with MA abstinence outcomes and (2) to determine whether structural changes in frontostriatal circuitry over the 8-week CM intervention correspond with neurocognitive, psychological and MA abstinence measures.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* provide voluntary informed consent
* meet DSM-5 criteria for MA or amphetamine use disorder
* provide at least one urine sample positive for MA/amphetamine metabolites during screening (i.e. prior to the commencement of the study).
* aged 18-45
* right-handed
* English-speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

* currently receiving treatment for stimulant addiction or needing more intensive treatment than outpatient care
* meet DSM-5 criteria for substance use disorder other than nicotine
* unable to attend 4+ visits during the 2-week screening period or to complete measures
* Physical or mental illness that would require intervention that would alter imaging or that would interfere with safe study participation
* pregnant, claustrophobic, or have metal prostheses, cardiac pacemakers, or metal clips that are incompatible with the scanner
* HIV positive status
* unable to comprehend written or spoken English
* currently taking psychiatric medication

Primary outcomes:
measure: Responses to Contingency Management
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: fMRI Measures
timeFrame: Change b/w baseline and 8 Weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Stop Signal Task
timeFrame: Change b/w baseline and 8 Weeks
measure: Continuous Performance Task
timeFrame: Change b/w baseline and 8 Weeks
measure: Stroop
timeFrame: Change b/w baseline and 8 Weeks
measure: Balloon Analog Risk Task
timeFrame: Change b/w baseline and 8 Weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Cape Town
country: South Africa
facility: Department of Psychiatry at Groote Schuur Hospital
Study officials:
References: