Role of Acetate in Heavy Drinking
Yale University
Summary
The purpose of this study is to learn how drinking alcohol affects how people experience stress and how that is affected by the body's chemistry. Specifically, the investigators will be studying relationships of drinking and a stress hormone called cortisol. The investigators believe that results will lead us to find more effective ways to help people stop or reduce drinking when participants are drinking at harmful levels.
Description
Brain acetate consumption will be measured with a novel method called Deuterium Metabolic Imaging (DMI), in which sodium acetate that has been labeled with deuterium, a non-radioactive isotope of hydrogen, is administered intravenously over two hours, while Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is used to map the appearance of the deuterium in glutamate and glutamine regionally through the brain. That combination of glutamate and glutamine, called Glx, serves as a tag to measure the brain's rate of acetate consumption. That is, the more deuterium appears in Glx, the more acetate that part of t…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–55 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Provision of signed and dated informed consent form * Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and availability for the duration of the study * Medically stable male or female, aged 18-55. * Able to read, write and complete a multitude of self-assessments in English * Meets DSM-5 criteria for current Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) * Participants who have Alcohol Use Disorder and are actively drinking must be willing to receive (at no cost) inpatient treatment for AUD for a period of up to 30 days. Participants who have been treated for an Alcohol Use Disorder a…
Interventions
- OtherDeuterium Metabolic Imaging with deuterated acetate tracer
Deuterium Metabolic Imaging (DMI) is a method by which Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is used to map the appearance of deuterium from a tracer source (e.g., deuterated acetate) in products of metabolism. In this case we will map the combination of glutamate and glutamine, called Glx, to serve as a tag to measure the brain's rate of acetate consumption. That is, the more deuterium appears in Glx, the more acetate that part of the brain consumes.
Locations (2)
- The Anlyan Center, 300 Cedar St.New Haven, Connecticut
- Yale UniversityNew Haven, Connecticut