Spatial Context and Fear Learning

Completed

Conditions studied: Anxiety Disorders

In brief

Background: \- Fear is a normal response to a threat. Learning fear can be helpful sometimes. For people with anxiety disorders, fear can be long-lasting and too intense. Researchers want to study how people become fearful of situations. They want to understand how the brain learns when it is helpful to feel fear and when it is not. Objective: \- To better understand brain processes related to fear and anxiety. Eligibility: * Right-handed adults ages 18 50 with generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder. * Right handed volunteers ages 18-50 without psychiatric disorders. * And free of psychiatric medication for 2 weeks Design: * Participants will first be screened under another protocol. * Participants will play a video game inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The scanner is a metal cylinder It is surrounded by a strong magnetic field. Participants will lie on a table that can slide in and out of the scanner. A device called a coil will be placed over the head. * During the scan, participants may play a virtual reality video game. Game instructions will be explained before they enter the scanner. * While playing the game, participants will wear 2 electrodes on their fingers. These measure sweat on the skin. They will also have 2 small electrodes attached to the left hand. These can give brief mild electrical shocks. * Participants will be asked questions when playing the game during the scan. * Before and after the scan, participants will fill out questionnaires about their emotions. They may complete questionnaires online while at the clinic.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT02423044

Run by

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

People needed

82

Starts

2015-04-18

Expected to finish

2018-10-30

Last updated by the study team

2019-11-04

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 50. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may not qualify if…

• Non-English speaking individual
• Any significant medical or neurological problems (e.g. cardiovascular illness, respiratory illness, neurological illness, seizure, etc.)
• High or low blood pressure (SBP>140 or SBP<90; SDP<50 or SDP>90)
• Alcohol/drug abuse in the past year or lifetime alcohol or drug dependence according to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR
• Medications that act on the central nervous system (e.g., Lorazepam, Codeine) and thus may interfere with the interpretation of study results. Specific exclusionary drug classes include but are not limited to: (opioid analgesics, DA receptor agonists, anticholinergics, MAO inhibitors, COMT inhibitors, as well as any illicit substances)
• Pregnancy or positive pregnancy test
• Neurological syndrome of the wrist (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, etc.)
• Positive urine toxicology screen
• IQ <80
• Participants who report getting severe motion sickness, especially by playing video games
• Any medical condition that increases risk for fMRI:
• Any metal implants (clips, screws, plates, pins, etc) or metal fragments cause by injuries or metal working
• Any sort of medical implants (aneurysm clips, pacemaker, insulin pump, Hickman line, etc.)
• Permanent eye liner and tattoos above the neck
• Patients who have difficulty lying flat on their back for up to 60 min in the scanner
• Participants who are uncomfortable in small closed spaces (have claustrophobia) and would feel uncomfortable in the MRI machine
• Additional Exclusion Criteria for Healthy Volunteers:
• Current or past Axis I psychiatric disorders as identified with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR, non-patient edition (SCID-np)
• Current use of psychotropic medications (i.e. fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil), citalopram (Celexa) or escitalopram (Lexapro), etc.).
• <TAB>
• Additional Exclusion Criteria for Patients:
• Patients who are currently on psychotropic medications. (Patients are required to be free of all psychotropics medication (i.e. fluvoxamine (Luvox), sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil), citalopram (Celexa) or escitalopram (Lexapro), etc.) for 2 weeks, 5 weeks for fluoxetine prior to testing. Patients will not be taken off medications for the purpose of the study)
• Patients will be excluded if they have a current or past history of any psychotic disorder, delirium, dementia, amnestic disorder, cognitive disorder not otherwise specified, any of the pervasive developmental disorders, or mental retardation
• Patients who have a primary diagnosis of major depressive disorder.

Where it is running

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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