A New Intervention to Improve Function in Veterans With Anxiety and Depression
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2028-09-30
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Anxiety and depression symptoms occur at high rates in Veteran populations and can
significantly impact function, compromising the ability to work and to successfully form and
maintain valued relationships. Several other symptoms commonly occur with anxiety and
depression, including poor sleep quality and chronic pain. Since all these symptoms
frequently occur together, they may have a common underlying biological basis. A single
medication that could effectively treat all these symptoms would be ideal. Converging data
suggest that pregnenolone is a promising pharmacological agent for treating multiple
psychiatric symptoms and functional impairment. The investigators thus propose to conduct a
clinical trial of pregnenolone in Veterans with anxiety and depression symptoms. Pregnenolone
has minimal side effects, and the prior research demonstrates that pregnenolone is
well-tolerated by Veterans. Treatment with pregnenolone could thus be an efficacious new
therapeutic for Veterans experiencing depression, anxiety, poor sleep quality and chronic
pain conditions.