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Insulin Resistance and Reward Signaling in Obesity

NCT02241603 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE1 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 37

Last updated 2026-05-12

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Obesity is a common problem in the Veteran population as at least 1 in 3 Veterans have obesity. When people with obesity taste food they have less response in areas of the brain that sense pleasure (reward). Decreased pleasure response to food predicts future weight gain. It is not known if this poor brain response is reversible or why obese people's brains respond this way. Insulin in the brain regulates the brain's sensing of pleasure. As people gain weight the function of insulin becomes impaired. The investigators will study if impaired function of insulin is related to a lessened brain response to food and if this brain response predicts voluntary intake of food and response to a low-calorie diet. The investigators will also study if improving the function of insulin with weight loss improves the brain response. These studies will improve the understanding as to why weight loss is difficult and inform us if improving insulin signaling is a potential way to treat obesity.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Weight loss

Veterans with obesity who are metabolically unhealthy will undergo dietary intervention aiming for 5-10% weight loss

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Washington University School of Medicine

    collaborator OTHER

  • VA Office of Research and Development

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • Julia P Dunn, MD · St. Louis VA Medical Center John Cochran Division, St. Louis, MO

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
25 Years
Max Age
60 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-11-17
Primary Completion
2020-07-01
Completion
2020-07-06

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02241603 on ClinicalTrials.gov