Trial reportPsychopharmacology2023
Effects of baclofen on insular gain anticipation in alcohol-dependent patients - a randomized, placebo-controlled, pharmaco-fMRI pilot trial.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Baclofen Modulates Neural Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in Treatment-Seeking Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleOne hallmark of addiction is an altered neuronal reward processing. In healthy individuals (HC), reduced activity in fronto-striatal regions including the insula has been observed when a reward anticipation task was performed repeatedly. This effect could indicate a desensitization of the neural reward system due to repetition. Here, we investigated this hypothesis in a cohort of patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), who have been treated with baclofen or a placebo. The efficacy of baclofen in AUD patients has been shown to have positive clinical effects, possibly via indirectly affecting structures within the neuronal reward system.
objectivesTwenty-eight recently detoxified patients (13 receiving baclofen (BAC), 15 receiving placebo (PLA)) were investigated within a longitudinal, double-blind, and randomized pharmaco-fMRI design with an individually adjusted daily dosage of 30-270 mg.
methodsBrain responses were captured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during reward anticipation while participating in a slot machine paradigm before (t1) and after 2 weeks of individual high-dose medication (t2).
resultsAbstinence rates were significantly higher in the BAC compared to the PLA group during the 12-week high-dose medication phase. At t1, all patients showed significant bilateral striatal activation. At t2, the BAC group showed a significant decrease in insular activation compared to the PLA group.
conclusionsBy affecting insular information processing, baclofen might enable a more flexible neuronal adaptation during recurrent reward anticipation, which could resemble a desensitization as previously observed in HC. This result strengthens the modulation of the reward system as a potential mechanism of action of baclofen.
trial registrationIdentifier of the main trial (the BACLAD study) at clinical.gov: NCT0126665.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.