Study of the Neural Substrates of Alcohol Craving by High-resolution Electroencephalography

Overview

Alcohol is the most consumed psychoactive substance in France and is responsible for 49,000 deaths per year in the country. Addictions, characterized by "the repeated impossibility of controlling a behavior and the continuation of this behavior despite the knowledge of its negative consequences", are a major public health issue in France and worldwide. Alcohol dependence (DSM-5 moderate to severe use disorder) is a chronic behavioral disorder, whose main characteristic is its high and prolonged risk of "relapse", i.e. the resumption of problematic consumption after a period of improvement (abstinence or reduction). One of the main components of addiction is "craving", which can be defined as the irrepressible desire to use a substance (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association). To date, despite functional imaging studies (fMRI), the brain mechanisms involved in craving remain poorly understood. In recent years, a new neuroimaging device has become available, both in research and in clinical settings: high-resolution electroencephalography (HRE). This non-invasive method allows to observe brain activity at the millisecond level. The objective of the CRAVING-NET project is to better understand brain function in alcohol addiction, and in particular in craving.

The objective of the CRAVING-NET project is to better understand brain function in alcohol addiction, and in particular in craving, using high-resolution electroencephalography. Brain activity following the induction of alcohol craving, as well as responses to questionnaires related to their relationship to alcohol and their state of health, which will be obtained in patients will be compared to the same responses in healthy volunteers.

Conditions