Exploring the Decision to Drink (More) Alcohol Following Manipulations of Stress and Social Context
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Stress, Social Context.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Psychological Stress, Social Interaction. Basic parameters: 21 years — 50 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Overview
This preregistration documents an experiment examining the effects of acute stress and social context on alcohol-related decision-making. The study uses a 2x2 factorial design (stress vs. control × social vs. alone) with dyadic recruitment.
Detailed description
Behavioral data:
Our first set of hypotheses tests whether the decision is influenced by stress and social context:
H1a: Stress affects the decision between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, so that participants in the stress conditions choose alcoholic over non-alcoholic drinks more often compared to participants in the no stress conditions.
H1b: Social context affects the decision between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, so that participants in the social conditions choose alcoholic over non-alcoholic drinks more often compared to participants in the alone conditions.
H1c: We test two competing predictions:
(I) The effect of stress on the decision between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks is modulated by social context, so that the effect of stress is stronger for participants that are in the social condition.
(II) The effect of stress on the decision between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks is modulated by social context, so that the effect of stress is weaker for participants that are in the social condition
Drift diffusion modeling:
Our second set of hypotheses test how the decision might be influenced by stress and social context:
H2a: Stress affects the bias (but not the drift rate or boundary) parameter of the drift diffusion model, so that the bias parameter is more positive for participants in the stress conditions.
H2b: Social context affects the bias (but not the drift rate or boundary) parameter of the drift diffusion model, so that the bias parameter is more positive for participants in the social conditions.
H2c: Stress and social context have an interactive effect on the bias (but not the drift rate or boundary) parameter of the drift diffusion model, so that the bias parameter is either more or less positive for stressed participants who are in the social condition (in line with H1c).
Interventions
- Other Stress
Participants randomly assigned to the stress condition will undergo the standard protocol of the Trier Social Stress Test. Participants randomly assigned to the control condition will undergo a validated, non-stressful control procedure mirroring the TSST. - Other Social Context
Participants randomly assigned to the social condition will make decisions about consuming alcohol with a known peer. Participants randomly assigned to the control condition will make decisions about consuming alcohol alone.
Primary outcome measures
- Proportion of choices for alcoholic over non-alcoholic drinks. [Time frame: 5 minutes]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Drinking alcohol at least once a week
- Consuming 4 (female) or 5 (male) drinks in one occasion at least once a month
Exclusion criteria
- Currently pregnant or trying to become pregnant
- Past or current treatment for alcohol use
- Past or current medical condition that contraindicates alcohol use
- Past or current reaction to alcohol that contraindicates alcohol use
- Past or current medication that contraindicates alcohol use
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Factorial
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- University of Washington — Seattle
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07390084 · STUDY00023737 · R00AA030591