Approach Bias Modification for the Treatment of Cannabis Use Disorder
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03629990. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Effective and durable treatments for cannabis use disorder remain elusive. Given the increasing prevalence rates of cannabis use and CUD nationwide, investigation of novel treatments is warranted. Implicit cognitive processing is an emerging, and potentially critical therapeutic target. Cognitive models of addiction posit an override of explicit control-related cognitive processes by implicit reward-driven processes resulting from chronic drug exposure. One form of implicit cognitive processing is approach bias, or, the automatic tendency to approach rather than avoid drug cues, which has been identified for alcohol, nicotine, opioids, and cannabis. Cannabis approach bias predicts increased cannabis use, dependence severity, and cannabis-related problems among heavy cannabis users. Approach bias modification (ABM) is a novel treatment approach that seeks to reduce approach bias by attenuating the incentive-salience of drug cues, and subsequently, drug cue reactivity and drug use. ABM has been shown to reduce relapse rates in alcohol dependent adults by 10-13% at one-year follow-up, and dependence severity in nicotine dependent adults. Our pilot data suggests that ABM may also reduce cannabis craving and that gender may moderate the effect of ABM on cannabis sessions per day in non-treatment seeking adults with CUD. A recent fMRI study with alcohol-dependent adults found decreased mesolimbic activation in participants who received ABM compared to sham-control participants. ABM appears to target implicit reward-driven processes, and could be an effective adjunct to traditional psychosocial and/or future pharmacological interventions that target explicit control-related processes. Building on our promising feasibility data, the proposed K23 research study will examine the effects of ABM on cue-reactivity and cannabis outcomes in a four-session randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled pilot treatment trial. One-hundred and six (106) treatment-seeking adults with moderate to severe CUD will be randomized to receive either MET/CBT plus ABM or Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(MET/CBT) plus sham-ABM. An equal number of men and women will be recruited and randomization will be stratified by gender. ABM sessions will occur following each of the three weekly MET/CBT therapy sessions. Primary outcomes will include cannabis cue-reactivity and cannabis use.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03629990
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 104 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- Approach Bias Modification (ABM) Behavioral
- Sham ABM Behavioral
- Psychosocial therapy for cannabis use disorder. Behavioral
Behavioral
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 65 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jan 15, 2019
- Primary completion
- Oct 29, 2023
- Completion
- Oct 29, 2023
- Last update posted
- Dec 16, 2024
2019 – 2023
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medial University of South Carolina | Charleston | South Carolina | 29425 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03629990, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Dec 16, 2024 · Synced Sep 2, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03629990 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.