Antidepressants, Emotions and Personality

Summary

Neuroticism is a personality trait described as an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states and to respond poorly to environmental stress. It has been shown that high neuroticism can predispose, amongst other factors, to the development of depressive episodes. Recent studies suggest that subjects with high neuroticism have a different response to stimuli with an emotional content, showing both decreased processing of positive or increased processing of negative emotionally salient cues. These differences in cognitive processing of emotional stimuli are believed to underpin the psychological characteristics that link high neuroticism with a higher risk for depression.

Preliminary data also indicate that modulation of serotonin function by antidepressant treatment in healthy volunteers with high neuroticism traits could modify the brain activity associated with the processing of emotional stimuli that is dysfunctional in this vulnerable population.

The aim of this research is to investigate further whether modulation of serotonin function via administration of serotonergic antidepressants (SSRIs) can revert the dysfunctional emotion processing that characterises subjects with the personality trait of high neuroticism.

In particular we hypothesise that SSRI administration will modify the abnormal patterns in attention, physiological reactivity and regulation of emotional stimuli present in healthy individuals with the vulnerable personality trait of high neuroticism.

Carrying out this research on healthy volunteers will enable us to understand if modulating serotonin function by antidepressant administration has an effect not only on mood symptoms - as is evident in depressed patients - but also on the predisposing psychological and cognitive processes that sustain the depressed mood, such as the response to emotional stimuli. We will also be able to verify if this effect is shown early treatment and prior to any subjective changes in mood. This will be done by administering seven days of either the antidepressant citalopram or placebo to subjects with high neuroticism scores and then comparing them on a series of computer based psychological tests measuring various aspects of how emotionally salient stimuli are processed.

Conditions

• Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation

Interventions

DRUG

Citalopram

DRUG

Placebo

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Oxford

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Martina Di Simplicio, MD · University of Oxford (at the time of study); MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences unit (current)

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-07-31

Primary Completion

2010-11-30

Completion

2010-11-30

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations