Spectroscopic Imaging at 4T: A Drug Challenge Study

• Status: Terminated
• Trial end date: 2013-12-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Male

Summary

An advanced technique for rapid magnetic resonance proton spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI) will be employed in a drug challenge study in healthy volunteers to spatially map and measure acute changes in the brain chemicals GABA, glutamate and glutamine after administration of a drug. Three condition will be tested in a double-blind fashion, i)depressant, ii)stimulant, iii)placebo. It is hypothesized that unique and reproducible spatial and directional metabolic response patterns will be observed, unique to each condition within the brain.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Mclean Hospital
• Treatments: Alprazolam; Dextroamphetamine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants will be male volunteers between the ages of 21-45

• Non-smoking participants are preferred, but will admit those who smoke less than 5 cigarettes per day

• Participants must be able to read screening materials including consent form and give informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants cannot meet DSM-IV criteria for lifetime and/or current mood, anxiety, psychotic, and alcohol/drug use disorders as identified by the SCID

• Participants cannot be taking any prescription medication (except oral contraceptives, certain short-term anti-fungal agents, and some topical creams for dermal conditions) or nutritional supplements

• Participants cannot be taking any psychotropic medications

• Participants cannot have a history of major head trauma resulting in cognitive impairment, seizure, or other neurological disorders.

• Participants cannot have any conditions that are contraindicated for MRI

• Participants cannot have a family history of alcoholism

• Participants cannot have any abnormal blood chemistries/urinalysis results or any other medical condition that may affect drug disposition (e.g., Hepatitis C)

• Participants cannot have current or past cardiac problems, and they also cannot have a family history of sudden death or ventricular arrhythmia

• Participants who, in the investigators' judgment, will not likely be able to comply with the study protocol.

• Participants cannot have any clinically significant findings in the structural anatomic brain scans (per the MRI report read by a board-certified radiologist).