7T Amygdala and Citalopram Study
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-40
SponsorUniversity of Oxford
About this trial
The goal of this study is to investigate how a common antidepressant citalopram (which increases the levels of the chemical messenger serotonin), affects how a key area of the brain involved in depression (the amygdala) responds to emotional information.
Healthy participants will undergo medical and psychiatric health screening, after which they will be assigned to receive either a single dose of citalopram (20mg) or placebo, and undergo brain scanning (7T fMRI) whilst viewing emotional faces. Since the scan uses high field strength, the investigators will be able to see effects of citalopram on different subfields within the amygdala which will help to understand how citalopram might be working.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Participant is willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the research
Sufficiently fluent English to understand and complete the task
Disqualifiers
Participants with ferromagnetic objects in their bodies (e.g. metal implants, vessel clips, shrapnel injuries) or with implanted devices which may be damaged by the magnet (e.g. heart pacemakers)
Any other MRI contraindication following MRI safety screening
History or current significant psychiatric illness (like major depressive disorder)
Current or past diagnosis of any significant personality disorder (e.g. borderline personality disorder) according to self-report
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Citalopram
DrugParticipants will receive a single dose (20mg) citalopram. Tablets encapsulated to aid blinding. To take per oral once.
Placebo
DrugParticipants will receive a single dose of placebo (sucrose). Tablets encapsulated to aid blinding. To take per oral once
Treatment groups
54 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: CitalopramExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: PlaceboPlacebo comparator 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Neural measures: fMRI BOLD univariate analysis
Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI (region of interest (ROI) analysis amygdala) during the performance of an emotional faces task. Differential amygdala response to fearful and happy faces. Univariate analysis
Time frame
3 hours after dosing for approximately 1 hour2
Neural measures: fMRI BOLD multivariate analysis
Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI (region of interest (ROI) analysis amygdala) during the performance of an emotional faces task. Amygdala response to fearful and happy faces. Multivariate pattern analysis.
Time frame
3 hours after dosing for approximately 1 hourSecondary outcomes
1
Behavioural measures: Accuracy during gender discrimination task
Accuracy (% correct) of gender identification will be measured to ensure participant engagement throughout the task.
Time frame
3 hours after dosing for approximately 1hour2
Behavioural measures: Reaction times during gender discrimination task
Reaction times (ms) of gender identification will be measured to ensure participant engagement throughout the task.
Time frame
3 hours after dosing for approximately 1hourSponsors and contacts
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Source ClinicalTrials.gov