Characterizing the Neural Substrates of Irritability in Women: an Experimental Neuroendocrine Model
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2022-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The proposed study involves experimentally manipulating reproductive hormones in nonpregnant,
euthymic women to create a scaled down version of the changes that occur during pregnancy and
the postpartum period. This endocrine manipulation paradigm, which the investigators have
shown provokes irritability in past studies, will be used to examine the neurocircuitry
underlying irritability under baseline and hormone challenge conditions among women who are
hormone sensitive (HS+; n=15) and non-hormone sensitive (HS-; n=15). The long-term goal of
this research is to advance understanding of the neural systems underlying both the
triggering of and susceptibility to irritability in women. The objective of the current
project is to examine whether HS+ show differences in the behavioral activation system
relative to HS- under baseline and hormone challenge conditions using functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral tests.
Phase:
Phase 2
Details
Lead Sponsor:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Collaborators:
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) National Institutes of Health (NIH)