Emotional Brain Training for Addiction Medicine Treatment - A Pilot Study

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a behavioral modification method, can help manage stress and health problems related to addiction. EBT teaches skills to deactivate harmful circuits (automatic reactions) and activate healing circuits to quickly shift mood from negative to positive. Participants in the EBT group will receive focused, intensive instruction on using these skills to rewire unwanted brain circuits, with the aim of achieving lasting improvements in emotional health and quality of life. The study will assess whether EBT is an effective tool when added to standard of care (SOC), which includes medications for addiction treatment (MAT).

Researchers will compare changes in stress, anxiety, and cravings after 8 weeks of EBT plus SOC versus SOC alone.

Participants:

* will either continue receiving standard treatments (SOC) at the Addiction Recovery Clinic (ARC) at SAC Health in San Bernardino
* or receive both EBT and SOC at ARC
* in the SOC group will continue monthly visits at ARC and weekly counseling
* in the EBT plus SOC group will continue monthly visits and weekly counseling at ARC, along with weekly EBT group sessions by telephone
* will complete online assessments at weeks 0, 4, and 8 Upon completion of the study, all participants will resume SOC

Conditions

• Cannabis Use Disorder
• Stimulant Use Disorder
• Opioid Use Disorder
• Tobacco Use Disorder
• Alcohol Use Disorder
• Sedative, Hypnotic, or Anxiolytic Use Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Emotional Brain Training

Emotional Brain Training (EBT) is a structured, neuroscience-based behavioral intervention that focuses on rewiring the brain's stress-related circuits to promote emotional resilience, self-regulation, and lasting behavioral change. This behavioral intervention has not been implemented in addiction treatments in the past. Unlike traditional therapies that primarily target cognitive processes or symptom management, EBT directly addresses the physiological and emotional root causes of maladaptive behaviors by engaging the brain's natural neuroplasticity mechanisms. EBT integrates rapid emotional processing tools, peer-to-peer support, clinician-facilitated sessions, and mobile app-based self-care to systematically transition brain circuits from stress-reactive to stress-resilient states.

OTHER

Standard addiction counseling and medical therapy

Participants will receive standard counseling (including but not limited to cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, etc.), which does not include EBT, in addition to medications for addiction treatment (including but not limited to buprenorphine, naltrexone, bupropion, etc.).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, San Francisco

  collaborator OTHER

• Social Action for Health

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Loma Linda University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-08-31

Primary Completion

2027-07-31

Completion

2027-08-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations