Effect of Clonidine on Responses to Imagery Scripts
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2013-08-07
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Background:
- Research has shown that clonidine, a drug originally prescribed to treat high blood
pressure and some symptoms of opioid withdrawal, can help block stress-induced relapse to
heroin and cocaine seeking in rats. However, it does not seem to block cue-induced relapse in
rats. Researchers are interested in studying whether clonidine shows the same pattern of
effects on stress- and cue-induced cravings for heroin or cocaine in humans.
Objectives:
- To compare the ability of clonidine to reduce stress- and cue-induced cocaine and heroin
craving in drug abusers.
Eligibility:
- Individuals between 18 and 55 years of age who are current cocaine or heroin users.
Design:
- This study will consist of two visits: a screening visit to determine eligibility and an
experimental/script session.
- Before the script session, participants will provide urine and breath samples for
testing. Participants will complete questionnaires to measure their current drug craving
and days since last use of cocaine or heroin.
- At the start of the script session, participants will receive a dose of clonidine or
placebo as directed by the study researchers. Three hours after dosing, participants
will be read four scripts (two neutral, one stress-inducing, and one drug-cue-related)
with breaks in between each script. After each script, participants will respond to
questions about levels of stress and craving.
- Participants will provide saliva samples immediately before and during the script
readings, and will also be measured for skin response to the scripts.