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RecruitingNCT06878287LUNAUpdated Mar 14, 2025

Bright Light Therapy During Residential Alcohol Withdrawal

An interventional study of Light exposure and Placebo light in Alcohol Use Disorder and Alcohol Withdrawal, sponsored by Centre Hospitalier St Anne. Recruiting at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-03-14.

Sponsored by Centre Hospitalier St Anne · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by May 2025, 1 year 4 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
  • Registered 2 years 3 months after the study started (first participant enrolled May 2022, registered Sep 2024).
  • Started May 2022; still recruiting 4 years 4 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
100
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of light therapy versus placebo in patients undergoing alcohol withdrawal.

Read the detailed description

All eligible patients will be offered and explained the study by a psychiatrist/addictologist during the consultation (or teleconsultation) to schedule a 14-day hospitalization for alcohol withdrawal (maximum 3 months before hospitalization). Patients will be randomized centrally to one of the following two treatment conditions (blind maintained by a nurse independent of the assessment), on day D0 of inpatient treatment for withdrawal (standardized withdrawal over 14 days with hydration, vitamin B1, benzodiazepines in gradual decrease before stopping and according to signs of withdrawal):

  1. Active light therapy (10,000 Lux).
  2. Placebo light therapy (with filter \<10 Lux). Every morning in the room (patient in a single room), at 8 am, for 30 min, for the entire duration of withdrawal, i.e. 13 days (start on D1) and stopped on D14.

No change in usual care apart from this intervention.

After checking the inclusion and non-inclusion criteria and obtaining consent, patients will be randomized (ratio 1:1) between the groups with active light therapy or placebo, by connecting to a randomization website (REDCap software) using a randomization list prepared in advance, balanced by block of randomly variable size

02

Conditions studied

  • Alcohol Use Disorder
  • Alcohol Withdrawal

Browse trials for

03

In context

Alcoholism

1,606 studies on the registry are indexed under Alcoholism; 329 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 100 is above the median of 87 across 1,371 interventional studies indexed under Alcoholism.

Browse Alcoholism studies →

Lead sponsor

Centre Hospitalier St Anne is the lead sponsor of 99 studies on the registry; 53 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients must be aged from 18 to 65 years old and have a diagnosis of Alcohol Use Disorder
  • Patients must be intreated for alcohol withdrawal, for at least two weeks
  • Patients must report heavy drinking episodes in the past month
  • Patients must be able to understand medical information and consent to the treatment
  • Patients must be considering a goal of abstinence from alcohol

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Ophthalmic pathology (cataract, macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa) and diseases affecting the retina (retinopathy, diabetes, herpes, etc.)
  • Subjects who have already received light therapy in the last 6 months
  • Lactating of pregnant women
  • Psychiatric comorbidity requiring an intreatment, or risk of manic episode (subjects with depressive or anxious symptoms compatible with an out-treatment can be included)
  • Substance Use Disorder other than alcohol and/or tobacco
  • Severe cognitive impairment (MOCA \< 10)
  • Patients being under legal protection measure
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
100 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Experimental group

    Light therapy every morning (8 am-8.30 am)

    Other: Light exposure

  • Placebo comparator
    Control group

    Dim-Light exposure every morning (8 am-8.30 am)

    Other: Placebo light

Interventions

  • OtherLight exposure

    30 minutes morning exposure to light (10 000 lux) using a light-box device filtering UV (CE marking)

  • OtherPlacebo light

    30 minutes exposure to the same device using a filter inactivating light intensity (\< 10 lux)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Alcohol relapse or lapse

    Assessment of alcohol intake at the follow-up visits using a Timeline Followback. Relapse : any heavy drinking day, i.e. 5 or more drinks/day for a man or 4 or more drinks/day for a woman, as defined by the NIAAA (2005) and the FDA (2015), and/or 14 drinks or more per week for at least 4 weeks. Lapse : any alcohol intake not meeting the criteria for relapse

    Time frame: 4 and 12 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Actigraphy

    Wristwatch actigraph delivered at inclusion, which allows measurement of activity and sleep-wake parameters using an accelerometer worn on the wrist MotionWatch8 from CamNTech®

    Time frame: 1 day and third week

  2. Alcohol withdrawal severity

    Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol scale (CIWA-Ar) : maximum and mean score on the first 5 days after admission

    Time frame: 2 weeks

  3. Circadian typology

    Chronotype questionnaire (Horne \& Östberg) a

    Time frame: At inclusion

  4. Alcohol craving

    Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS)

    Time frame: At inclusion, 1, 2, 4 and 12 weeks

  5. Depressive and anxious symptomatology

    * Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) * Self-questionnaire : QIDS-SD16 and GAD-7

    Time frame: At inclusion, 1, 2, 4 and 12 weeks

  6. Suicidal risk

    Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)

    Time frame: At inclusion, 1, 2, 4 and 12 weeks

  7. Cognitive impairment

    Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) : three different versions

    Time frame: At inclusion, 2 and 12 weeks

  8. Light therapy tolerance

    Side effects questionnaire designed for a previous study

    Time frame: At 2 weeks

  9. Polysomnography

    Sleep recording at the sleep laboratory, measuring : * Sleep stages * Total Sleep Time * Sleep Efficiency * Number of awakenings or arousals * Snoring * Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) * Periodic Limb Movements

    Time frame: 1 week

  10. Subjective quality of sleep

    Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)

    Time frame: 12 weeks

  11. Number of days with 2 drinks or more

    % of days with 2 drinks or more at the follow-up visits

    Time frame: 4, 12 weeks

  12. Heavy drinking days

    % of heavy drinking days at the follow-up visits

    Time frame: 4, 12 weeks

  13. Days with no drinking

    % of days with no drinking at the follow-up visits

    Time frame: 4, 12 weeks

  14. Percent with complete abstinence

    % of subjects with no drinking at the follow-up visits

    Time frame: 4 and 12 weeks

  15. Number of individuals in relapse

    % of subjects meeting criteria for relapse at the follow-up visits

    Time frame: 4 , 12 weeks

  16. Sleep diary

    sleep diary.give at the first appointment then fill in every day

    Time frame: From inclusion to third week

  17. Circadian typology

    seasonal profile (SPAQ)

    Time frame: one day

  18. Actigraphy

    Wristwatch actigraph delivered at inclusion, which allows measurement of activity and sleep-wake parameters using an accelerometer worn on the wrist ScanWatch from Withings®

    Time frame: one day to third week

  19. Alcohol withdrawal severity

    mean benzodiazepine dosage required by day during the 2 weeks of treatment

    Time frame: one day to 2 weeks

  20. Subjective quality of sleep

    Insomnia Severity Index (ISI)

    Time frame: one day, 2 day to12 weeks

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Adult Emergency Department - Bichât Hospital
    Paris, Île-de-France 75018, France
    • Michel LEJOYEUX, Psychiatrist · Contact · 01 40 25 82 62
    Recruiting
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 14, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06878287
Lead sponsor
Centre Hospitalier St Anne
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 14, 2025
Start date
May 31, 2022
Primary completion
May 31, 2025 (estimated)
Completion
May 31, 2025 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 14, 2025

Study contacts

Pierre Alexis GEOFFROY, PhD
Contact
pierrealexis.geoffroy@aphp.fr
+33140256048
Sibylle MAURIES, Ph
Contact
sibylle.mauries@aphp.fr
+330140256272
Pierre Alexis GEOFFROY, PhD
principal investigator · University Hospital Group for Psychiatry and Neurosciences

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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