Stress-immune Mechanisms for People Living With HIV, CUD and Depression
Yale University
Summary
This is a basic human experimental study utilizing 4 groups of individuals with and without HIV and complex morbidities of cannabis use disorder and major depression who will participate in 2 sessions of the Yale Pain Stress Task (YPST) and follow-up phase to assess drug use and mood symptoms.
Description
This study aims to address research gaps using a powerful and novel cross-diagnostic approach with multiple complementary approaches to examine the overarching hypothesis that PLWH+CM exhibit impaired stress-related HPA and HPA-immune function due to alterations in epigenetic mechanisms, and these stress-related HPA-immune and related epigenetic aberrations predict distress, craving and substance use symptoms underlying PLWH complex morbidities. This hypothesis will be tested using a combined human experimental stress challenge approach with prospective longitudinal assessment of daily distres…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–68 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * good health as verified by screening examination * Able to read English and complete study evaluations and provide informed written and verbal consent. Additional criteria PLWH * HIV-1 lab test positive * undetectable viral load * good ART adherence Additional criteria by group: PLWH +CM: * CB positive urine toxicology * meet DSM-5 criteria for CUD and MDD as assessed using SCID-I. HC * HIV-1 test negative * urine toxicology negative * no major medical and psychiatric diagnoses based on DSM-V. PLWH Only: * HIV-1 test positive * urine toxicology negative * no major m…
Interventions
- OtherYale Pain Stress Task (YPST)
Individuals in the experimental cohort will be scheduled for 2 experimental sessions 1-3 days apart. The YPST stress experiment includes a stress and no-stress session (order randomly assigned, counter-balanced across subjects), and involves multiple (up to 3) unpredictable number of consecutive 3-minute trials of ice-bath (stress) or warm-bath (no stress) forearm immersion (stress) with subjective, physiologic endocrine and immune assessments repeated at specified time points.
Location
- The Yale Stress CenterNew Haven, Connecticut