Assessing the Impact of Varenicline on Brain-Behavior Vulnerability

September 6, 2016 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

Assessing the Impact of Varenicline on Brain-Behavior Vulnerability in Cocaine Dependence

Our proposal will enable us to study cocaine patients to determine whether varenicline can weaken brain arousal to drug cues in an fMRI imaging setting, which is what we theorize. This supplement supports a pilot imaging study in cocaine dependence. It will evaluate the impact of varenicline on the brain response to ultra-brief drug and comparison cues in an event-related fMRI paradigm. This is a pilot study.

We will additionally examine the impact of varenicline on addiction-relevant behavioral probes of impulsivity, inhibition, attentional and affective bias. The proposed study will provide the first brain-behavioral probes of varenicline's cocaine-relevant actions in humans, and will provide the critical scientific rationale to move the agent into future collaborative clinical trials.

Study Overview

Status

Withdrawn

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of Pennsylvania Treatment Research Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 55 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Physically healthy male substance abuse subjects age 18-55.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • 1) Participation in clinical trial and receipt of investigational drug(s) during previous 60 days 2) Clinically significant cardiovascular, hematologic, hepatic, renal, neurological or endocrinological abnormalities 3) History of serious head trauma or injury causing loss of consciousness that lasted more than 3 minutes. 4) Presence of magnetically active prosthetics, plates, pins, broken needles, permanent retainer, bullets, etc. in subject's body (unless a radiologist confirms that its presence is unproblematic). A x-ray may be obtained to determine eligibility. 5) Claustrophobia or other medical condition disabling subject from lying in the MRI for approximately 60 minute

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: chantix
Drug: chantix
.5 mg once a day 1 to 3, .5 mg twice a day on days 4 to 7, 1 mg from day 8 to end of treatment
Other Names:
  • varenicline

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To determine whether varenicline, as compared to placebo, can blunt the limbic activation (e.g., amygdala, ventral striatum/ventral pallidum, etc.) by ultra-brief cocaine cues using fast event-related fMRI.
Time Frame: End of study
End of study

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Varenicline (vs. placebo) may reduce positive affective bias to drug (cocaine) cues.
Time Frame: End of study
End of study

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Anna Rose Childress, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2013

Study Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 7, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

May 8, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 8, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 6, 2016

Last Verified

September 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 807134
  • DPMC (Other Identifier: NIDA)
  • 1P50DA012756 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • supplement (Other Identifier: Office of Dietary Supplements)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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