Gambling, sex, and food: scientists map the addicted brain

NCT ID NCT03967418

What the study statuses mean

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Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now
This trial is taking on new participants right now.
Not yet recruiting
Registered, but not yet taking participants.
By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
Paused
Paused for now. It may or may not start again.
Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed This study
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
Not a trial. This treatment can be requested outside a study, case by case, for people who qualify.
Expanded access (paused)
Not a trial. The treatment can normally be requested outside a study, but is unavailable right now.
Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

Details not published
The full record has not been published yet, so there is little to show here.
Status unknown
This status has not been confirmed recently, so it may be out of date.

First seen Sep 14, 2026 · Last updated Sep 15, 2026 · Updated 1 time

Summary

Researchers at Nantes University Hospital are comparing how people with different behavioral addictions think, feel, and process social situations. The study includes people with gambling disorder, sexual addiction, and eating disorders with bulimia episodes, along with healthy volunteers of similar age and background. All participants complete the same set of cognitive and clinical assessments, and researchers will look for patterns that distinguish one addiction from another.

What this could mean

Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.

Active substance
cognitive and clinical assessment
What this could lead to
If researchers map distinct thinking and emotion patterns for different behavioral addictions, that could guide more targeted psychological treatments in the future.
What could go wrong
This study only observes and measures; it tests no treatment, so it cannot show whether any therapy works. The findings may not apply beyond the French-speaking participants studied.

This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.

Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Not a phased trial

Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.

Participants

116 people

The number who actually took part.

Started

Oct 2019

Finished

Jun 2025

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

15 years and older

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Accepted

You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria for all participants: * More than 15 years and 3 months old * Mastering the French language * Social Security Affiliates * Having given consent * Correct level of vision allowing the reading of instructions, the distinction of shapes and colours and the understanding of shapes and images presented in cognitive tasks (subjectively attested by the patient) * Correct hearing level, allowing a good understanding of the sounds presented (subjectively attested by the patient and the assessor at the first contact for eligibility) Inclusion criteria for patients: * Suffering from one of the behavioural addiction explored * Beginning treatment in the Addictology department of the University Hospital of Nantes Inclusion criteria for healthy volunteers: \- Free from the explored behavioural addictions Exclusion Criteria for all participants: * Current and not stabilized psychiatric and addictive disorders (mood disorders, anxiety disorders and substance-use disorders except nicotine, lifetime psychotic syndrome), diagnosed by the MINI and after consultation with the clinician, * Non stabilized endocrine disorders * Neurological disorders (such as head trauma, neurodegenerative diseases, unbalanced epilepsy, mental retardation, etc.), * Taking a psychotropic treatment wich is not stabilized for at least 2 weeks, * Consumption of a psychoactive substance - other than nicotine - within the 12 hours prior to the assessment, * Color blindness * Cardiac problems self-reported by the patient, in order to avoid bias in the measurement of cardiac parameters, * Electrical implants as declared by the participant (to avoid measurement artifacts) * Having benefited from current or past cognitive remediation program * Reporting being pregnant or breastfeeding * Current participation or in the past month in a pharmacological research protocol * Presenting difficulties for reading or writing French * Being under guardianship * With significant cognitive impairment not compatible with de cognitive assessment Exclusion criteria for healthy volunteers : \- Suffering from one of the behavioural addiction explored

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Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Feeding and Eating Disorders pathological gambling

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Contacts and locations

Locations

  • CHU de Nantes

    Nantes, 44093, France

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