Antiglucocorticoid Therapy for Cognitive Impairment in Late-life Anxiety Disorders (Mifepristone)

August 7, 2020 updated by: Washington University School of Medicine

This study seeks to develop and test a novel, mechanistic treatment for mitigating cognitive impairment in older adults with anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders are common, severe, and disabling in older adults. One particularly impairing aspect of late-life anxiety disorders is cognitive impairment: impairments in memory and executive function cause disability, impede treatment response to psychotherapy, may lead to dementia, and are not corrected by standard anti-anxiety treatments.

This pilot study will test the glucocorticoid antagonist, mifepristone, for cognitive impairment in late-life anxiety disorders. Mifepristone blocks the effects of elevated cortisol levels on glucocorticoid receptors in the brain; it has been studied preliminarily in various neuropsychiatric disorders, such as psychotic depression and bipolar disorder, with well-documented safety and tolerability.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Currently, no treatment exists to address cognitive impairment in late-life anxiety disorders. In this study, fifteen patients aged 60+ with an anxiety disorder (current or in partial remission) and subjective and/or objective evidence of cognitive impairment will receive treatment with mifepristone. At the baseline visit participants will be randomized to receive either mifepristone 300mg or a placebo daily for 7 days. Participants will be reassessed after 7 days (week 1 visit) of receiving study medication (mifepristone or placebo). At that time all participants will be provided mifepristone 300mg daily for the remaining 3 weeks of study treatment. The primary outcome measure will be neurocognition, as assessed by a battery of neuropsychological measures focusing on immediate and delayed memory and executive function (administered at baseline, week 1, week 4, and week 12). Saliva samples for cortisol measurement will be collected immediately following the baseline visit and week 4 visit. Secondary outcomes will be self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

15

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

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
    • Missouri
      • Saint Louis, Missouri, United States, 63110
        • Washington University School of Medicine

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

60 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 65 and older
  • Non-demented by clinical evaluation
  • Current or partially remitted generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder
  • Currently taking antidepressant treatment with stable dose for at least 8 weeks
  • Memory impairment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Mild to severe dementia
  • Diabetes
  • Current alcohol or substance abuse
  • Current or lifetime psychotic symptoms, bipolar disorder, or eating disorder
  • Untreated endocrinologic disease
  • Lifetime Cushing's or Addison's disease
  • Current cancer
  • History of metastatic cancer
  • Current use of systemic corticosteroids

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: mifepristone
1 week mifepristone or placebo (followed by 3 weeks open label mifepristone)
Drug: Mifepristone
300mg per day, by mouth, for 21-28 days
Other Names:
  • RU-486
  • Mifeprex

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Drug Acceptability, as Measured by Number of Participants With Dose-limiting Side Effects
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 2, Week 4
number of participants with dose-limiting side effects
Baseline, Week 2, Week 4
Number of Participants With Self-reported Side Effects
Time Frame: 4 weeks
4 weeks
Cognitive Changes Over Time, as Measured by Between Group and Within-subjects Comparison of Neuropsychological Measures.
Time Frame: Baseline, Week 4, Week 12
Memory composite z-score: The two memory measures were a 16-word list recall similar to the Rey auditory verbal learning test, which has been used by the Washington University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center; and two paragraphs from a set of paragraph recall tests validated as sensitive to effects of stress-level glucocorticoids. For each memory variable, a z score was computed for each participant, where z score = (participant score mean)/standard deviation. Then a single composite memory variable was created by summing up these z scores. Summed Z-scores range from -6 to 6, with scores above 0 being higher than the mean.
Baseline, Week 4, Week 12

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Anxiety Symptoms
Time Frame: baseline, week 4, week 12
Self-report assessment of worry using Penn State Worry Questionnaire- Abbreviated, an 8-item measure (range 8-40 with high scores indicating higher levels of anxiety and worry symptoms.The average score for older adults with generalized anxiety disorder is 22, while the mean score for healthy older adults is 15.
baseline, week 4, week 12

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Eric J Lenze, MD, Washington University School of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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

September 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 24, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 8, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

April 11, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 18, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 7, 2020

Last Verified

August 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 201011836

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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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