The Effects of Hydromorphone on Responses to Verbal Tasks

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2016-09-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

In this study, the investigators will examine the effects of hydromorphone, as compared to placebo, upon physiological, subjective, and hormonal responses to a stressful speech task and a non-stressful control task in healthy adults. There is strong evidence in support of the role of endogenous opioids and opiates in mediating social behavior in humans and other animals, and particularly, in social distress. The investigators have recently shown that buprenorphine, a partial mu-opioid agonist, reduces cortisol responses to stress. Here, the investigators propose to further explore the role of the opioid system in mediating stress responses in humans through the use of hydromorphone, a full mu opioid agonist, in addition to acetaminophen. The investigators hypothesize that like acetaminophen, hydromorphone will reduce both physiological and subjective measures of stress.

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

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University of Chicago
• Collaborator: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• Treatments: Acetaminophen; Buprenorphine; Hydromorphone

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy adult volunteers

Exclusion Criteria:

1. any current medical condition requiring medication or abnormal electrocardiogram

2. current or past medical condition considered to be a contraindication for the study conditions

3. any current Axis I psychiatric disorder (APA, 1994) including Substance Use Disorder, or Anxiety Disorder or Major Depression in the past year, any history of psychosis

4. less than high school education

5. lack of fluency in English

6. night shift work

7. Pregnancy, lactation or plans to become pregnant.

8. Use of hormonal contraception.

9. Daily cigarette smokers i.e., >7 cigarettes per week