The Mind Research Network
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn how adding brain stimulation to a brief counseling session affects adults with cannabis use disorder. The counseling session uses motivational interviewing, which helps people talk through their reasons for changing or not changing cannabis use. The brain stimulation is called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). tACS uses electrodes on the scalp to give a very weak electrical current for a short time. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does active tACS affect what participants say during the counseling session? * Does active tACS change brain activity after the session? * Is active tACS related to less cannabis use during the month after the session? Researchers will compare motivational interviewing with active tACS to motivational interviewing with placebo stimulation. Placebo stimulation uses the same setup but does not provide the active 30-minute stimulation. Participants will be assigned by chance to one of these groups, and neither participants nor the study staff member running the session will know which type of stimulation is used. Participants will complete questionnaires, breath and urine tests, a recorded counseling session during active or placebo stimulation, MEG and MRI brain scans, daily text-message check-ins about cannabis use, and follow-up questionnaires about one month later.
Motivational interviewing is a widely used counseling approach for substance use disorders, including cannabis use disorder. A central proposed mechanism of motivational interviewing is that clients resolve ambivalence by hearing themselves express reasons for change and reasons for maintaining current behavior. Prior empirical and meta-analytic research has linked these within-session speech patterns with subsequent substance use outcomes. This proof-of-concept randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial tests whether transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can modulate this…
Inclusion Criteria: * self-identification as having problematic cannabis use * age 21-65 years * SCID-5-RV module E indicating current cannabis use disorder Exclusion Criteria: * currently engaged in treatment for any substance use disorder (SUD) * receiving treatment for any SUD within the prior 30 days * history of brain injury or major neurological diagnosis, vascular/neurodegenerative disorder, or complex primary headache disorder * evidence of current psychosis * past-year substance use disorder other than cannabis, alcohol, or nicotine * positive urine drug screen for any illicit drug…
Active transcranial alternating current stimulation
sham transcranial alternating current stimulation including 30 seconds of ramp-up and ramp-down at the beginning and end of the session, with no stimulation between ramping procedures.