Neural and Hormonal Influences on Sex Differences in Risk for AUD
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2025-06-30
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The sex gap in alcohol consumption is closing rapidly, due to alarming increases among women.
From 2002-2013, Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) increased 84% for women, compared to 35% for men.
As such, there is an urgent need to determine the factors underlying sex differences in risk
for AUD. Current addiction models propose three domains that drive problematic alcohol use
and serve as candidate sex-specific risk factors: executive function, negative emotionality,
and incentive salience. Data suggest that poor inhibitory control, a key component of
executive function, is a stronger risk factor for women than for men. Moreover, there is have
preliminary evidence that female drinkers show less engagement of neural inhibitory
circuitry, and that this sex difference is influenced by estradiol. However, the degree to
which hormonally-moderated sex differences in executive function extend to the negative
emotionality and incentive salience domains, and how these sex differences influence current
and future drinking is unknown.
The goal of this study is to identify the mechanisms underlying sex-specific risk for AUD,
and ultimately to help develop sex-specific prevention and treatment efforts. The overall
objective of this trial is to determine the neural and hormonal factors contributing to
sex-specific risk for AUD in three addiction domains: inhibitory control (executive
function), negative emotionality, and alcohol cue reactivity (incentive salience).
Phase:
N/A
Details
Lead Sponsor:
Jessica Weafer
Collaborator:
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)