Virginia Commonwealth University
Cocaine Use Disorder (CocUD) is a significant public health issue with increasing cocaine-related overdose mortality. Effective treatments for CocUD are highly needed. One understudied target for CocUD therapeutics is improving cognitive function (CF) in that key theories attribute development of CocUD and other substance use disorders (SUD) to impaired CF, such as decreased ability to inhibit behavior. Heavy cocaine users show impairments in attention, working memory, planning, and response inhibition, affecting as many as 30-80% of individuals with SUD. These cognitive deficits affect patient engagement and participation in SUD treatment, thus necessitating SUD programs assess and accommodate cognitive problems throughout treatment.
Among persons with SUD, those with low CF show more attentional bias toward reward-associated cues, where relapse may stem from reward circuit activation by drug cues that is insufficiently checked by the neurocircuitry of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) thought to regulate behavior. Many skills for SUD recovery taught in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are reliant on DLPFC directed top-down regulation, such as recognizing environmental triggers and recalling more healthy coping strategies. However, a challenge for CBT is poor encoding, retention and in situ invocation of these s…
Inclusion Criteria * Between 18 and 65 years-of-age. * Meet current DSM-5 criteria for Cocaine Use Disorder (CocUD), moderate or severe * Professed interest in CocUD treatment or reducing cocaine use. * Understand and comply with study procedures * Positive urine result for cocaine metabolite in at least one screening visit. Exclusion Criteria * Current DSM-5 diagnosis of any non-cocaine substance use disorder (SUD) other than alcohol use disorder-mild or cannabis use disorder-mild * Epilepsy or a history of multiple seizures * Taking any medications known to reduce seizure threshold * Hist…
Stim-CBT program consists of eight, 60-minute individual therapy sessions with a VCU clinical psychology doctoral student who will present CBT program modules remotely by Zoom.
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