Developing Memory Reconsolidation Blockers as Novel Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatments

May 26, 2017 updated by: Roger K. Pitman, MD

Developing Memory Reconsolidation Blockers as Novel PTSD Treatments

Despite substantial therapeutic advances, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) remains difficult to treat. One promising new area of research is in post-reactivation pharmacologic intervention, which is based upon the concept of blockade of memory reconsolidation. Recent animal research suggests that reactivation (retrieval) of a stored memory can return it to a labile (alterable) state from which it must be restabilized in order to persist. This process is called "reconsolidation," and various drugs have been found to block it in animals. This blockade may lead to a weakening of the original memory trace.

The aim of this study is to pilot the effect of mifepristone on physiologic responding during traumatic imagery. Although mifepristone is widely and safely used to cause a medical abortion, it is also a powerful stress hormone receptor blocker. These stress hormones, called glucocorticoids, may enhance memory (re)consolidation. Indeed, a recent study in animals reported that mifepristone blocked reconsolidation of context-conditioned fear in rats.

Reconsolidation blockade is a two-stage process. First, the memory must be destabilized by recalling it. Second, reconsolidation of the memory must be blocked by a drug. Memory traces formed under stressful conditions may resist destabilization and thus are inaccessible to reconsolidation blockers. However, when a reconsolidation blocker was paired with d-cycloserine (DCS) in animals that had been trained under stressful conditions, reconsolidation blockade became successful. These results suggest that DCS promotes the destabilization of resistant memory traces. The traumatic memories of individuals with PTSD may be particularly resistant to destabilization. Therefore, this study will compare mifepristone paired with DCS to placebo controls.

The same script-driven traumatic imagery method validated in previous studies of propranolol in this lab will be used. Briefly, subjects with PTSD will describe their traumatic event during a script preparation session, which will reactivate the memory. They will then receive a) mifepristone and DCS or b) placebo. A week later, they will engage in script-driven mental imagery of their traumatic event while physiologic responses (heart rate, sweating, etc) are measured. This is a pilot study so there are no formal hypotheses. The aim is to estimate effect sizes for mifepristone and to compare them with effect sizes for propranolol from this lab's previous work.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

34

Phase

  • Phase 4

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
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
        • Massachusetts General Hospital
    • Texas
      • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75216
        • Dallas VA

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 and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criterion:

  • Participant has experienced a traumatic event that meets the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV)11 A1. and A.2. PTSD criteria
  • Participant currently meets DSM-IV criterion B.5, viz., "physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event."

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Medical condition that contraindicates the administration of mifepristone, e.g., history of adrenal failure; concurrent corticosteroid therapy; hemorrhagic disorders; cardiovascular, hypertensive, hepatic, respiratory or renal disease; insulin dependent diabetes mellitus; severe anemia; heavy smoking; porphyria; allergy to mifepristone; concurrent anticoagulant therapy; or medical condition that contraindicates the administration of DCS e.g., hypersensitivity to cycloserine, epilepsy, severe renal insufficiency.
  • Pregnant (as determined by mandatory blood pregnancy testing, or currently breast feeding. (Note: Women who have had a hysterectomy or are post-menopausal (defined as over the age of 50 with no menstrual period for at least 12 months) will be exempted from pregnancy testing. Furthermore, women of childbearing potential will only be included if: a) they are using contraception in the form of barrier methods with spermicide, hormonal methods (e.g. birth control pill), or intrauterine devices (IUDs), or b) they have not been sexually active for the preceding 60 days.)
  • Contraindicating psychiatric condition, e.g., current psychotic, bipolar, melancholic, or substance dependence or abuse disorder; or currently suicidal.
  • Cognitive Impairment or dementia
  • Initiation of, or change in, psychotropic medication within one month prior to recruitment
  • Current use of medication that may involve potentially dangerous interactions with mifepristone, including certain CYP 3A4 substrates such as calcium channel blockers, azole antifungals, macrolide antibiotics, and tricyclic antidepressants. (Note - we have not included in this list benzodiazepines or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, because these drugs are frequently used by PTSD participants, and they have sufficiently wide therapeutic ranges such that any transient increases in blood levels induced by a single dose of mifepristone will not endanger participants); or current use of medication that may involve potentially dangerous interactions with DCS, including ethionamide, isoniazid, and pyridoxine.
  • Inability to understand the study's procedures, risks, and side effects, or to otherwise give informed consent for participation;
  • Age less than 18.

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: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mifepristone plus d-Cycloserine (DCS)
DCS 100 mg capsule orally followed by mifepristone1800 mg tablet orally 4 hours later and 90 minutes prior to traumatic memory retrieval via the traumatic event script preparation procedure, all on Day 7.
Drug: Mifepristone
1800 mg tablet, single dose 90 minutes prior to script preparation on Day 7.
Other Names:
  • RU-486, Mifeprex
Drug: d-Cycloserine
100 mg capsule, single dose, taken 4 hours prior to to mifepristone on Day 7.
Other Names:
  • Seromycin
Placebo Comparator: Placebo plus Placebo
Placebo-matching DCS 100 mg capsule orally followed by placebo-matching mifepristone1800 mg tablet orally 4 hours later and 90 minutes prior to traumatic memory retrieval via the traumatic event script preparation procedure, all on Day 7.
Drug: Placebo-matching Mifepristone
Placebo-matching mifepristone tablets
Drug: Placebo-matching d-Cycloserine (DCS)
Placebo-matching DCS capsules

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Physiological Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Probability as Determined From Psychophysiologic Responses to Traumatic Recollection
Time Frame: 1 week following treatment (Day 14)
The posterior probability of developing PTSD was determined for each participant from a composite of psychophysiological responses to script-driven imagery of traumatic events that included assessments of heart rate response in beats per minute, skin conductance response in microSiemens, and corrugator electromyogram (EMG) responses of the left lateral frontalis facial muscle in microVolts. Responses for the traumatic scripts were averaged and square-root transformed for analysis. Responses during personal traumatic imagery of previously studied individuals with and without current PTSD was used to calculate each participant's posterior probability of being classified as PTSD.
1 week following treatment (Day 14)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change From Baseline in the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) Total Score
Time Frame: Day 7 (Baseline) and Day 14
IES-R is a 22-item patient reported measure of PTSD symptoms. Each question is answered using a 5-point scale where 0=not at all to 4=extremely for a total possible score of 0 to 88. Lower scores represent less severe symptoms and higher scores representing more severe symptoms. IES-R change scores were calculated by subtracting the Day 14 IES-R total score from the Day 7 IES-R total score. A negative change from Baseline indicates improvement of symptoms and a positive change from Baseline indicates a worsening of symptoms.
Day 7 (Baseline) and Day 14

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Roger K. Pitman, MD

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 (Actual)

March 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 9, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 12, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

December 13, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 29, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 26, 2017

Last Verified

May 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2009P000647

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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