Alcohol and Implicit Process in Sexual Risk Behavior in MSM

Summary

The current study is the first empirical investigation that directly addresses the correspondence between responses regarding indicators of risky sexual behavior while under the influence of alcohol in the laboratory and the occurrence of sexually risky behavior while under the influence of alcohol in the natural environment, by use of Ecological Sampling Methodology (ESM). The study will allow us to compare and contrast implicit and explicit assessments of sexual risk in respect to future behavior in the natural environment. The data obtained will thus provide new information regarding the external validity of alcohol administration studies of sexual risk behavior and will provide information to optimize the selection of dependent measures. The current study also represents the first attempt to test a causal model linking alcohol intoxication and risky sexual behavior as a function of both automatic, reflexive, approach tendencies and effortful, deliberative, self-control (operationalized by executive working memory in this application). The ESM study will augment the findings of the experiment by providing a detailed assessment of contextual factors that affect sexual risk behavior as well as replicating and extending the findings of the experiment to sexual risk situations in the natural environment. Finally, to our knowledge there has been only one experimental study of alcohol and sexual risk in MSM (Maisto, Palfai, Vanable, Heath, \& Woolf-King, 2012), which is remarkable given that MSM have been identified as the population at highest risk to contract the HIV in the U.S. since the virus was identified in the early 1980s. Thus the proposed research is only the second attempt to add to an understanding of the connections among alcohol, cognitive processes, and sexual risk behaviors in MSM.

Conditions

• Alcohol Drinking
• Sex Behavior
• Men

Interventions

DRUG

Alcohol

OTHER

Placebo (non-alcoholic beverage)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

  collaborator NIH

• Boston University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of South Dakota

  collaborator OTHER

• Syracuse University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Steve A Maisto, PhD · Syracuse University

• Jeffrey Simons, PhD · University of South Dakota

• Tibor P.A. Palfai, PhD · Boston University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

21 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-05-31

Primary Completion

2020-06-30

Completion

2020-06-30

FDA Drug

Yes

Countries

• United States

Study Locations