Brief Summary

Substance/Alcohol Use disorders are defined as a loss of control over the use despite harmul consequences, as well as an intense and persistent urge to use, also called craving. Previous research has shown that craving is central among the diagnostic criteria for addiction, suggesting that it may be important in the onset and persistence of addiction. Addiction develops progressively, and it appears crucial to identify predictive markers of the transition from one level of severity to another over time. One hypothesis is that more closely linked symptoms (meaning symptoms that influence each other more) could be associated with greater severity and/or with the evolution of addiction severity over time. The aim of this project is to explore how the characteristics of the association between addiction symptoms (diagnostic criteria and symptoms as they occur in daily life), and the importance of craving relative to other symptoms, could serve as markers of different addiction severities and of the transition across these levels of severity.

Trial Health

On Track

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment

700

participants targeted

Target at P75+ for all trials

Timeline

59mo left

Started May 2026

Longer than P75 for all trials

Geographic Reach

1 country

1 active site

Status

recruiting

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

Click on a node to explore related trials.

Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

5 years study duration

Study Progress4%

May 2026Jun 2031

Study Start

First participant enrolled

May 20, 2026

Completed

1 month until next milestone

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

July 2, 2026

Completed

27 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

July 29, 2026

Completed

4.3 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

December 1, 2030

Expected

6 months until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

June 1, 2031

Last Updated

July 29, 2026

Status Verified

July 1, 2026

Enrollment Period

4.5 years

First QC Date

July 2, 2026

Last Update Submit

July 23, 2026

Conditions

Addiction

Keywords

Substance Use DisorderAddictionSymptoms networkEcological Momentary AssessmentTrajectoryStaging

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (8)

Craving centrality in the DSM-5 Substance Use Disorder diagnostic criteria network
Craving centrality will be quantified as the expected influence centrality of the DSM-5 craving criterion within a cross-sectional network including the 11 DSM-5 Substance Use Disorder diagnostic criteria. Expected influence values will be estimated for each assessment (baseline, 1-year and 2-year follow-up) and compared across addiction severity groups and severity transition groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Global connectivity of the DSM-5 Substance Use Disorder diagnostic criteria network
Global network connectivity will be quantified as global strength (sum of absolute edge weights) of the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria network. Global strength estimates will be compared across addiction severity groups and severity transition groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Predictability of nodes in the DSM-5 Substance Use Disorder diagnostic criteria network
Node predictability will be calculated as the proportion of variance explained (R²) for each DSM-5 diagnostic criterion by its neighboring nodes within the network. Mean node predictability will be reported and compared across addiction severity groups and severity transition groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Differences in DSM-5 Substance Use Disorder diagnostic criteria network structure
Differences in overall network structure and global strength between addiction severity groups and severity transition groups will be evaluated using the Network Comparison Test (NCT). The reported outcome will be the statistical significance of differences in network structure.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Temporal network structure of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) symptoms
Temporal directed network parameters estimated from ecological momentary assessment data including primary substance use, craving, affect, self-efficacy, withdrawal symptoms, cues, stress, coping, sleep, impulsivity and other daily-life variables. Temporal edge weights will be estimated using multilevel vector autoregressive models and compared across severity groups and severity transition groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Contemporaneous network structure of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) symptoms
Contemporaneous partial correlation network estimated from ecological momentary assessment variables. Network structure will be compared across severity groups and severity transition groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Between-subject network structure of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) symptoms
Between-subject partial correlation network estimated from ecological momentary assessment variables. Network structure will be compared across severity groups and severity transition groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up
Individual network invariance assessed by the Individual Network Invariance Test (INIT)
Individual Network Invariance Test (INIT) results will assess whether each participant's symptom network significantly differs from the group-level network. The proportion of significant INIT tests will be reported and compared across severity groups.
Baseline, 1-year follow-up, 2-year follow-up