Skip to main content
ABCT 2024 58th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Back
ViewAttendees 2

Symposia

Treatment - CBT

Innovations to Increase the Efficacy and Reach of Exposure Therapy

3 - (SYM 53) Isradipine Augmentation of Virtual Reality Cue Exposure Therapy for Tobacco Craving: A Triple-blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Friday, November 15, 2024
2:30 PM – 4:00 PM EST
Location: 309/310, Level 3, Downtown Marriott
Abstract Body
Preclinical research with rodents suggests that the L-type calcium channel blocker isradipine can enhance long-term extinction of conditioned place preference for addictive substances when it is administered in conjunction with extinction training. Although isradipine alone, which is FDA-approved for hypertension, has not shown a direct effect on craving in human drug users, its potential to augment behavioral treatments designed to reduce craving remains unknown. We conducted a triple-blind, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of isradipine combined with a novel virtual reality cue-exposure procedure with multimodal cues that targeted craving. After 24 hours of abstinence, 78 adults with an ongoing history of daily cigarette use received isradipine (n = 40) or placebo (n = 38) and reported craving levels after each of 10 trials of virtual reality cue exposure therapy. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, the isradipine group had significantly lower mean craving across cue-exposure trials at the medication-free 24 hour follow-up (d = -0.42, p = 0.046). There were no serious adverse events; however, side effects such as headache and dizziness occurred more frequently in the isradipine group. Given this evidence of isradipine’s augmentative effect on extinction, resulting in lower levels of craving after only one session of cue exposure therapy, further clinical trials are needed to test whether this approach can reduce smoking relapse rates after an initial quit attempt.