A Study of New Treatment for Excessive Alcohol Users by Electric Stimulation of Nerves Around Ear

Summary

Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD's) are a major health and social problem. Relapse is a rule rather than an exception in alcohol dependence, leading to poor outcomes. Craving are frequently associated with relapse. Keeping in mind the high burden of disease due to AUD, limited efficacy of available treatment modalities it is important to study new treatment modalities. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a promising neuromodulation technique with robust evidence in epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression. fMRI studies show that transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) replicates most of the biological effects of VNS with an additional advantage of being non-invasive. Percutaneous Electrical Neural Field Stimulation (PENFS) of auricular branch of vagus nerve is a variant of tVNS which has shown promise in the treatment of opioid withdrawal. The efficacy of PENFS has been evaluated in AUDs in only handful of studies.

I propose to employ a double-blind randomized sham-controlled trial where 40 subjects with AUD will be randomized to 2 groups, with 1 group receiving 'Active' auricular PENFS, and another group receiving bilateral 'sham' auricular PENFS.

Assessments will be carried out at baseline and after 15 days of advent of PENFS on tasks to assess craving, along with neurohemodynamic changes on functional Magnetic Resonance Image (fMRI). Follow up of patients will be done till the first relapse or till 3 months after the post evaluation, whichever is earlier.

The investigator's hypotheses are:

1. Active PENFS will lead to significantly greater improvement in subjective craving and drinking-related outcomes as compared to sham PENFS in patients with AUD over the follow-up period of 3 months.
2. Active PENFS will produce a significantly differential Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) activation-deactivation pattern of brain regions (greater activation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex and along with deactivation of insular cortex) associated with craving during a cue-induction paradigm as compared to sham PENFS in patients with AUD.
3. Active PENFS will result in a significant differential change in resting-state functional connectivity (fMRI measured) within and between addiction-related neural networks as compared to sham PENFS as evaluated with a resting state fMRI analysis in patients with AUD.

Conditions

• Alcohol Use Disorder

Interventions

DEVICE

Drug Relief V(version) 2.0 Auricular Percutaneous Electrical Neural Field Stimulation (PENFS)

This is a Small electronic circuit board with a minimal number of electronic components in it, which is powered by three zinc-air batteries. Each battery consists of 1.4v of charge. From this charge, the circuit produces a maximum voltage of 3.4V under no load condition. The produced Voltage is driven as output by using the three stimulation wires, and the fourth insulated wire acts as a ground. The wires are Bio-compatible and do not have any impact when in contact with the human skin. The wire is attached with a needle to transfer the produced voltage into the nerves of the human ear. The sterilized needle (Titanium) is attached at the end of the wire through a snap fit ring. All the materials used are gone through necessary safety and performance testing including bio-compatibility and sterility testing, wherever necessary.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• DyAnsys, Inc.

  lead INDUSTRY

Principal Investigators

• Diptadhi Mukherjee, MBBS,DM · National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS)

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-10-20

Primary Completion

2021-12-27

Completion

2021-12-27

Countries

• India

Study Locations