Methylphenidate and Response to Alcohol Cues

The purpose of this study is to determine whether changes in attention levels related to taking a single dose of a medication called methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin, affects responses to alcohol cues. The study will observe the effects of methylphenidate or a placebo on neural and craving responses to alcohol cues through fMRI and behavioral testing. Participants will be involved in one remote and two in-person sessions.

Recent studies have revealed a robust link between attentional ability and resilience against stress-related psychopathology, in general, and against alcohol use disorder (AUD) specifically. For example, self-reported attentional ability correlates with scales of psychological resilience and with lower alcohol misuse in at-risk individuals. One mechanism by which attention may relate to resilience in AUD is through its effects on alcohol cue reactivity. Exposure to alcohol cues can induce motivation to drink alcohol for those with AUD. Leveraging the high rates of co-morbidity of AUD and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, this pilot study seeks to demonstrate whether experimentally enhancing attention in individuals with alcohol misuse reduces markers of addiction severity (i.e., craving and attentional bias responses to alcohol cues) and will explore the neural and behavioral mechanisms. Methylphenidate not only improves sustained attention, but in users of cocaine and methamphetamine, it was previously shown to reduce craving, attentional bias, and neural responses to viewing drug-related cues. This study will use this commonly-prescribed medication as a pharmacological probe of attentional processes related to alcohol use disorder. It is hypothesized that acute methylphenidate-associated attentional enhancement will engage compensatory brain mechanisms that will lead to attenuated craving, reduced attentional bias, and modulated neural responses to alcohol cues in young adults. Fifty young adults reporting hazardous alcohol use will be recruited for a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects experiment to test the effects of an acute 20 mg methylphenidate administration to increase attention on cue-induced alcohol craving \[during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)\] and attentional bias. Subjects will also perform computerized tasks of general attention with non-alcohol-related stimuli.