MedTrace Logo

Glutamate Emotion Memory Study

NCT05809609 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 60

Last updated 2024-05-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Clinical depression often includes a pessimistic view of things which have happened in the past and an impairment in the ability to experience pleasure or looking forward to things. A licensed drug called ketamine affects the levels of glutamate, a chemical messenger in the brain, and has been used as a treatment particularly for depression which hasn't got better with other types of medication. Glutamate plays a role in learning and memory so the investigators are interested in understanding how ketamine can affect how people with depression remember past negative and positive memories and how they experience reward.

The investigators are conducting a study in depressed participants who did not improve with the standard antidepressant treatment to expand our understanding on how ketamine can influence memory, the way people understand emotions and learn from rewards and punishments. Study participants will undergo medical and psychiatric health screening, drug administration (ketamine or saline), questionnaires and computer tasks before and after the administration of the study drug, and an MRI scan after administration of the drug. MRI is a type of brain scan that allows us to see how the brain responds during for example memories of things which have happened in the past. This project will help us understand how NMDA antagonists may work in depression.

Conditions

Interventions

DRUG

Ketamine Hydrochloride

Ketamine is a high trapping NMDA receptor antagonist which has rapid and reliable antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who fail to respond to at least two antidepressant trials of adequate dose and duration.

OTHER

No intervention (placebo)

Placebo injection (0.9% sodium chloride)

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Oxford

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Catherine Harmer, DPhil · University of Oxford

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

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

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-07-01
Primary Completion
2024-11-28
Completion
2024-12-28

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

More Related Trials

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 NCT05809609 on ClinicalTrials.gov