Estradiol Effects on Alcohol Across the Menstrual Cycle

• Status: Recruiting
• Trial end date: 2025-09-30
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Female

Summary

This study will provide the first rigorous integrative test of the hypothesis that rapid rises in estradiol (a female hormone) increase the rewarding and disinhibiting effects of alcohol and that such increased sensitivity correlates with increased alcohol use. Identification of the behavioral mechanisms by which estradiol surges can increase alcohol use would provide a critical advancement of neurobiological theory of alcohol abuse in women, an understudied area, as well as provide new directions for personalization of alcohol abuse treatment in women.

In this study, naturally-cycling women will be examined daily over their menstrual cycle using an integrative combination of daily ecological assessments of hormone fluctuations and alcohol use along with strategically-timed laboratory tests of their acute sensitivity to the rewarding and disinhibiting effects of a controlled dose of alcohol.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Mark Fillmore
• Collaborator: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• female

• regular menstrual cycle

• consume alcohol at least once per week

• no history of drug or alcohol dependence

Exclusion Criteria:

• use of hormone-based medications

• irregular menstrual cycle

• current pregnancy

• primary sensorimotor handicap

• frank neurological disorder

• pervasive developmental disorder

• frank psychosis

• diagnosed intellectual disability

• medical condition contraindicating alcohol use

• substance abuse history (except nicotine)

• body mass index (BMI) 30 or above

• alcohol abstainer