Emotional Reactivity in Severe Alcohol Use Disorder and Depression Using Eye-Tracking and Physiological Measures

Is this trial a fit for you?

A plain-English reading of the study's rules. Only the study team can confirm whether you qualify.

What this trial studies

The study is observational and compares emotional recognition and reactivity across four groups: severe Alcohol Use Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, comorbid sAUD and depressive symptoms, and healthy controls. Participants complete two sessions involving dynamic emotional facial expressions and emotional scenes while eye-tracking and physiological data are collected. Researchers will examine how recognition and reactivity relate to psycho-affective, socio-emotional, stress-related, and interoceptive factors, and whether these emotional processes predict outcomes at 6 and 12 months. The approach emphasizes ecologically valid stimuli and multimodal measurements to capture real-world emotional processing. The study is conducted at Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, led by Université Catholique de Louvain.

Why it matters

Who can join: the full rules

Inclusion Criteria:

All participants must:

* Be aged 18 to 70 years, fluent in French, and able to provide written informed consent.
* Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision, without ocular conditions that could interfere with eye-tracking or pupillometry data quality.

Patients with severe Alcohol Use Disorder (sAUD)

* Meet DSM-5 criteria for severe Alcohol Use Disorder.
* Be tested during the third week of abstinence.
* Have no history of neurological, endocrinal, or infectious disease, diagnosed anxiety or depressive disorder, or other substance use disorder (except tobacco).

Patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

* Meet DSM-5 criteria for a current Major Depressive Episode.
* Have no history of neurological disease, severe alcohol use disorder, other substance use disorder (except tobacco), or other psychiatric disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder, schizophrenia).

Patients with severe Alcohol Use Disorder and Depressive Symptoms (sAUD+DS)

* Meet the same inclusion criteria as the sAUD group.
* Present moderate to severe depressive symptoms persisting after withdrawal, confirmed by a clinical diagnosis using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI).

Healthy Controls (HC)

* Recruited from the general population, matched to patients for age, sex, and education.
* Have no current or past psychiatric or neurological disorder.
* Present subclinical levels of alcohol consumption (AUDIT score \<7 for men, \<6 for women) and depressive symptoms (BDI-II score \<10).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Cognitive impairment, uncorrected visual deficits, or any condition preventing understanding of instructions or reliable task performance (e.g., major attention or comprehension difficulties);
* Ophthalmological conditions that could compromise eye-tracking or pupillometry data quality;
* Dermatological conditions or excessive sweating that may interfere with electrodermal and cardiac activity recording;
* Cardiac conditions or devices that could affect ECG recording (e.g., pacemaker, defibrillator, severe uncontrolled arrhythmias), or use of medications strongly influencing heart rate.
* Acute intoxication or withdrawal state at the time of testing;
* Current diagnosis of psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, or neurological disease;
* Pregnancy;
* Ongoing participation in another interventional or clinical study that could interfere with behavioral or physiological measures;
* For healthy controls: use of psychotropic medication or history of substance use disorder.

Where it's running

• Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc
  Brussels, Belgium, Belgium Recruiting

Study contacts

• Study coordinator: Edelweiss Touron, PhD
• Email: edelweiss.touron@uclouvain.be
• Phone: +32470052024

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How to take part

1. Review the eligibility criteria above with your treating physician.
2. Check the official listing on ClinicalTrials.gov for the latest contact details and recruitment status.
3. Contact the study coordinator or principal investigator to ask for pre-screening. Pre-screening is free and never obligates you to enroll.