The Trauma of Betrayal: Treating Adjustment Disorder With Reconsolidation Blockade Under Propranolol
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2021-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Attachment injuries are events occurring within couple relationships that involve betrayal or
abandonment by a significant other during times of need (e.g., infidelity). They can be
understood as relationship traumas, which can lead to debilitating symptoms consistent with
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and generalized anxiety for the injured
partner. Research has demonstrated that the presence of an attachment injury represents a
barrier to empirically effective couple's therapy. However, disrupting memory reconsolidation
with the beta-blocker propranolol has been shown to alleviate PTSD symptoms by attenuating
the salience of the emotional trauma memory, representing an interesting avenue for the
treatment of adjustment disorders stemming from attachment injuries. Moreover, evidence
suggests that a certain degree of mismatch, or an error between what is expected/predicted to
occur and what actually occurs, must be present in order for a memory to destabilize and
enter the reconsolidation phase following retrieval. Here, the investigators aim to extend
the conditions under which reconsolidation therapy with propranolol can be used in a clinical
setting, as well as assess whether incorporating mismatch enhances treatment effects. The
investigators hypothesize that, compared to a wait-list control, 4-6 sessions of memory
reactivation under propranolol will significantly reduce trauma-related and general
anxio-depressive symptoms, associated with an attachment injury. Moreover, the investigators
hypothesize that participants randomized to the mismatch group will improve significantly
more than the standard treatment group on all variables of interest.