Meditation for Emotional Numbing in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Completed · Phase 1

Conditions studied: Prolonged Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

In brief

For individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the emotional numbing and isolation that are a core aspect of their suffering and consistently impedes remediation often remains after first-line treatments are administered. Few interventions have proven successful for enhancing the empathy and social connectedness that will ultimately allow patients to flourish, and the search for target therapies is made more difficult by the fact that very little is known about the underlying physiology of emotional numbing and social isolation. The proposed study is designed to (1) investigate the hormonal, neural and immunological biomarkers related to emotional numbing, and (2) test whether cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT), an intervention designed and proven to enhance empathy, will reduce emotional numbing and increase empathy and social connectedness in veterans. To this end, thirty medically healthy males diagnosed with PTSD who continue to report emotional numbing symptoms after prolonged exposure therapy will receive 8 weeks of training in CBCT. Prior to, and again after the training, the investigators will assess patients' levels of oxytocin, inflammation, and self-reported emotional numbing and social connectedness. The investigators will also assess their neural response during a video task that assesses their ability to accurately read others' emotions. The investigators hypothesize that oxytocin, neural activity, and inflammation will predict social numbing, isolation, and empathy, and also that CBCT will positively impact the social outcomes that will pave the way toward health and well-being.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT02163941

Run by

Emory University

People needed

20

Starts

2014-05-01

Expected to finish

2016-05-01

Last updated by the study team

2016-08-02

Who can join

Age: 25 and older, up to 65. Sex: male. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• previously met criteria for PTSD
• completed front-line treatment such as prolonged exposure therapy
• continue to report emotional numbing symptoms as a chief complaint
• Exclusion Criteria (at the discretion of the researchers):
• Self-reported psychotic symptoms, current major depression, or suicidal ideation
• Self-reported active alcohol or drug abuse within the past six months
• Self-reported depression serious enough to require hospitalization, or that resulted in a suicide attempt, within the last year.
• Self-reported auto-immune disease such as lupus, crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or rheumatoid arthritis.
• Self-reported use of psychotropic medication, including antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics or chronic benzodiazepine therapy that has changed in the past 6 weeks.
• Self-reported use of any medication that might strongly affect your stress or immune systems, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, COX-2 inhibitors, corticosteroids, beta-blockers or statins.
• Claustrophobia
• Ferromagnetic implants contraindicated by functional MRI (fMRI) safety regulations

Where it is running

• Emory University — Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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