NCT04647422

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

Investigation of Social Cognition and Executive Functions as Cognitive Vulnerability Markers for the Development and Maintenance of Alcohol Use Disorders - a Transverse Study Design

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 216 (actual)
• Sponsor: CHU de Reims · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

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

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	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

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-12-09
• Primary completion: 2024-12-05
• Completion: 2024-12-05
• First posted: 2020-11-30
• Last updated: 2026-01-21

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France