Currently Active Studies
Pre-Requisite Evaluation and Screening for CARI Research Eligibility and Enrollment (PRE-SCREEN)
Principal Investigator: Lori Keyser-Marcus, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description The purpose of this screening is to learn if you qualify for a study that either provides treatment for substance abuse or helps provide information about substance abuse that potentially can lead to new treatments. You have been asked to participate in this screening to serve as a (non-drug using) comparison to people who use substances of abuse.
Adolescent Brain Cognition Development (ABCD) Study
Principal Investigator: James M Bjork, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: To gain a better understanding of mental, social, emotion, and physical development during this important stage early life, and to learn more about why children differ in their development. The research team will try to determine how brain development, genetic factors, mental and physical health, education, peer and family relationships, activities and behaviors, and environmental exposure all influence young people as they mature. In particular, they will try to identify which factors seem to promote better outcomes, including independence and emotional well-being; and which may increase a young person’s risk for negative outcome, such as unhealthy habits and behaviors. The results of this study may help in designing new interventions that prevent negative and increase positive outcomes in young people’s lives.
Read more about this nation-wide study at the NIH ABCD Site.
Assessment of Longitudinal Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) as a Brain Measure for Impulsivity in a Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Model
Principal Investigator: James M Bjork, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: This study aims to use resting-state and task based functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) as a tool to evaluate trait characteristics of impulsivity in subjects with borderline personality disorder.
Interactive Effects of Chronic Opiates and HIV on Human Brain and Behavior
Principal Investigator: James M Bjork, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: The purpose of this study is to learn more about what certain “opiate” medications (such as methadone or pain medications like Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin) and infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) do to the brain. This includes looking at the shape of parts of the brain, or whether HIV or opiate medication use affect how the human brain works to help us get rewards and avoid losses.
Motivation and Inhibition in the Adolescent Brain-Developmental and Individual Differences in Substance Abuse Risk
Principal Investigator: James M Bjork, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: The purpose of this study is to learn more about how the brain works when teenagers and adults act to get rewards and avoid losses, and how the brain might work differently between people who do and don’t use drugs.
Fingerprinting of impulsivity in four Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Version 5 (DSM-5) Psychiatric Disorders That Have Been Clinically Associated with Impulsivity Using a Battery of Questionnaires and Behavioral Laboratory Tests
Principal Investigator: Lori Keyser-Marcus, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: The study aims to examine a battery of behavioral and questionnaire measures in 4 disorders clinically associated with impulsivity and in health controls, to: 1) investigate if the different populations have a distinct behavioral profile, and 2) to investigate if there are specific measures that are reliable and sensitive measures of impulsivity across diagnoses
Striatal Effective Connectivity to Predict Treatment Response in Cocaine Misuse
Principal Investigator: Liangsuo Ma, PhD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: The main purpose of this study is to find out how to better predict how a person will respond to treatment for cocaine addiction. This study will also test whether behavior therapy plus Levodopa/Carbidopa is a treatment approach that works for cocaine addiction. Measures of your memory and impulsivity (having a tendency to act on sudden urges or desires) while you are in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner will be tested to see if they predict how a person does in treatment.
5-HT2AR:5HT2CR Balance in Brain Connectivity in Cocaine Dependence
Principal Investigator: F. Gerard Moeller, MD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? Yes
Study Description: The main purpose of this study is to find out how the brain reacts to the medication called Mirtazapine and how this is related to cocaine addiction. Mirtazapine is a medicine that is approved by the FDA for the treatment of depression. More information about how the brain reacts to Mirtazapine may be helpful to develop new treatments for cocaine addiction. Measures of your memory and reaction time while you are in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner will be tested to find out whether there are differences in brain scans between people who have been using drugs and people who do not use drugs.
Drug Interaction and Self Administration Studies of Compounds for Cocaine Use Disorder
Principal Investigator: F. Gerard Moeller, MD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? No
Study Description: The main purpose of this study is to find out how the medication lorcaserin reacts with cocaine and the effects of lorcaserin on cocaine self-administration and how cocaine makes a person feel. Lorcaserin is a medicine that is approved by the FDA for the treatment of obesity under the trade name Belviq. More information about how Lorcaserin reacts with cocaine may be helpful to develop new treatments for cocaine addiction.
Cue Reactivity Functional MRI (fMRI) to Assess Compounds for Opioid Use Disorder and Cocaine Use Disorder
Principal Investigator: Joel L. Steinberg, MD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? No
Study Description: The main purpose of this study is to find out how the brain reacts to the medication called lorcaserin and how this is related to cocaine and/or opioid addiction. Lorcaserin is a medicine that is approved by the FDA for the treatment of obesity. More information about how the brain reacts to lorcaserin may be helpful to develop new treatments for cocaine addiction. Measures of attention, concentration, and impulsivity while you are in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner will be tested to find out whether there are differences in brain scans between people taking the lorcaserin and people taking a placebo. Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive test that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of the brain. fMRI looks at blood flow in the brain to detect areas of activity. These changes in blood flow, which are captured on a computer, help scientists understand more about how the brain works. The medication that you receive will be assigned randomly. That means the decision is made “by chance”, like the flip of a coin. Using the active study medication and placebo will test whether the medication reacts differently with the brain. At some point in the study you will receive a placebo and/or study medication.
Drug Interaction and Subjective Effects of Compounds for Opioid Use Disorder
Principal Investigator: F. Gerard Moeller, MD
Compensation Available to Participants: Yes
Healthy Volunteers Accepted? No
Study Description: The main purpose of this investigational study is to find out how the medication Lorcaserin reacts with oxycodone and the effects of Lorcaserin on how oxycodone makes a person feel. Lorcaserin is a medicine that is approved by the FDA for the treatment of obesity under the trade name Belviq. Oxycodone is a medicine that is approved by the FDA for the treatment of pain under a variety of trade names including OxyContin and OxyIR. More information about how Lorcaserin reacts with Oxycodone may be helpful to develop new treatments for addiction to Oxycodone and other opioids.