The Effect of Losartan on Emotional Processing in Healthy Volunteers

February 15, 2018 updated by: University of Oxford
This experimental medicine study explores whether a single dose of losartan (50mg) versus placebo affects the processing of positive and negative stimuli, using fMRI.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Losartan has been shown to accelerate fear extinction in animals and to prevent the development of anxiety disorders in humans, emphasising its potential to possibly enhance exposure therapy in humans. This study explores the basic effects of losartan on emotional processing, to identify neural mechanisms by which the drug might have synergistic effects on psychological treatment in humans.

In a double-blind between-groups design, 30 healthy volunteers will be randomised to a group receiving a single dose of losartan (50mg) versus placebo, and this study will measure the effects of probing renin-angiotensin function on emotional information processing, using functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI). Such knowledge will ultimately be essential for the development of more effective pharmaco-psychological treatment approaches for anxiety disorders.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

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 50 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • willing and able to provide informed consent
  • male or Female, aged 18-50
  • body mass index (BMI) of 18-30 kg/m2
  • fluent English skills
  • non- or light-smoker (< 5 cigarettes a day)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Female participant who is pregnant or breast-feeding
  • central nervous system (CNS) active medication during the last 6 weeks
  • Current blood pressure/other heart medication (esp. aliskiren or beta blockers)
  • Intravascular fluid depletion
  • Past or present DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) axis-I diagnosis
  • Alcohol or substance abuse
  • First-degree family member with a history of a severe psychiatric disease
  • Impaired liver or kidney function
  • Lifetime history of epilepsy or other neurological disease, systemic infection, or clinically significant hepatic, cardiac, obstructive respiratory, renal, cerebrovascular, metabolic, endocrine or pulmonary disease or disorder which, in the opinion of the investigator, may either put the participants at risk because of participation in the study, or may influence the result of the study, or the participant's ability to participate in the study.
  • Insufficient English skills
  • participated in another study involving certain medication during last 6 weeks
  • Contraindication to magnet resonance imaging (MRI) scanning (e.g. pacemaker)

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: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Losartan
single dose of 50mg losartan, tablet, over-encapsulated, to be taken orally
Drug: Losartan
blood pressure medication
Other Names:
  • Losartan Potassium
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
single dose of placebo (main ingredient microcrystalline cellulose), tablet, over-encapsulated, to be taken orally
Other: Placebo
non-active sham intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
BOLD signal change
Time Frame: 1 day
BOLD signal change during functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI)
1 day

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Oxford

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Andrea Reinecke, PhD, University of Oxford

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)

June 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 30, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

June 30, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 30, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 8, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

February 15, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 19, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 15, 2018

Last Verified

February 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MSD-IDREC-C3-2015-832

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

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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