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The Effects of Very Brief Exposure on PTSD in U.S. Combat Veterans

NCT06218381 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 80

Last updated 2025-12-18

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to develop a new behavioral treatment for U.S. combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), very brief exposure to combat-related stimuli. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. How does Very Brief Exposure (combat images and control everyday images) and Visible Exposure to combat stimuli affect brain activity and subjective fear ratings?
2. To what extent are participants aware of the stimuli presented and tolerating the exposures?

All participants will view both very brief exposure and visible exposure to combat stimuli in the functional magnetic brain imaging (fMRI) scan. They will provide ratings of fear, awareness, and tolerability. Researchers will compare U.S. combat veterans with PTSD and healthy controls to confirm differences in brain region activation and ratings.

Conditions

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Interventions

OTHER

Very Brief Exposure to Combat Images

In VBE, a series of pictures representing a person's fears (e.g., a combat scene with arousing visuals) is presented very briefly (17 ms), followed by a masking stimulus that prevents conscious recognition of each picture. This sequence of picture-mask stimuli is repeated many times in an exposure session.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Bradley M Peterson, MD · Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
50 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-03-22
Primary Completion
2026-07-31
Completion
2027-07-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

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 NCT06218381 on ClinicalTrials.gov