Brain Network Changes Accompanying and Predicting Responses to Pharmacotherapy in OCD

Yale University

Status and phase: Enrolling; Phase 2; Phase 1

Conditions: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Treatments: Drug: Fluoxetine - delayed treatment; Drug: Fluoxetine - immediate treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04131829

2000023688

1R01MH116038-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

1K24MH121571-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The proposed randomized, double-blind research study will use functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging using state-of-the-art HCP acquisition protocols and analytic pipelines, to identify predictors and correlates of response to an accepted first-line pharmacological treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Full description

The proposed study intends to recruit 2 groups:

1. Matched healthy control participants will be imaged with one fMRI at baseline as a no-treatment comparison group; and
2. a randomized, double-blind group of unmedicated OCD participants who will be assigned to begin either immediate or placebo-delayed treatment, and who will be imaged with fMRIs at baseline and over the course of treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), fluoxetine.

Hypothesis-driven analyses and exploratory analyses will be performed in parallel.

This study will address the following Specific Aims:

1. Identification of neural dysconnectivity associated with OCD symptomatology.
2. Characterizing neural markers of clinical response to SSRI pharmacotherapy.
3. Mapping neural predictors of clinical response to pharmacotherapy.

Enrollment: 100 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Inclusion criteria for all groups will include: (i) Adults, Men and women will be included, in a 1:1 ratio; and efforts will be made to recruit racial and ethnic subgroups. Groups will be further matched on age, handedness; and later, in analysis, on educational status and smoking history.

(ii) signed informed consent, approved by the Yale Human Investigations Committee; and (iii) ability and willingness to participate in all study procedures, including clinical assessments and fMRI scans.

• Additional inclusion criteria:

• OCD Participants:

  (i) a DSM diagnosis of OCD, established as detailed above; (ii) a baseline Y-BOCS of ≥16; (iii) no current psychoactive medication, with the exception of the occasional use of a PRN medication for sleep; (iv) treatment seeking, and clinically appropriate for fluoxetine pharmacotherapy; (v) for women of childbearing potential, not pregnant or intending to become pregnant, and willing to use reliable birth control over the course of the study, either prescribed contraceptive (oral contraceptive, injectable, or implant) or one barrier method (e.g. diaphragm with spermicide, intrauterine device, cervical cap). Women of childbearing potential must have a negative serum pregnancy test at screening and negative urine pregnancy tests at the study baseline and on each scan day appointment prior to the MRI scan.

• Healthy Control Participants:

  (i) no current DSM diagnosis (by clinician interview confirmed by SCID or MINI); (ii) no documented or clinically suspected family history in a first- or second- degree relative of OCD, Tourette syndrome, hoarding disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, or a compulsive grooming disorder.

Exclusion criteria

• Exclusion criteria for all groups will include:

  (i) any unstable medical, psychiatric, or neurological condition (including active or otherwise problematic suicidality) that may necessitate urgent treatment; (ii) any substance use disorder within the past 6 months; (iii) use of psychotropic medications within the past 8 weeks, with the exception of occasional use of a sleep aid or analgesic; (iv) use of an as-needed sleep aid or prescription analgesic within 3 days of the scan; (v) any history of a primary psychotic disorder or of mania; (vi) any evidence of substance use on urine toxicology testing; (vii) any major neurological disease or history of major head trauma, including concussion with extended loss of consciousness; (viii) pregnancy; (ix) any metal in the body or other contraindication to MRI scanning; (x) severe claustrophobia, back pain, or other condition that may make an extended MR scan difficult or lead to excessive movement during the scan.

• Additional exclusion criteria:

• OCD Participants:

  (i) past allergy or adverse reaction to fluoxetine or another SSRI, or other clinical contraindication to fluoxetine pharmacotherapy; (ii) documented nonresponse to a past trial of fluoxetine of appropriate dose (≥40 mg/dy) and duration (≥12 weeks).

(iii) Patients taking Coumadin or Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) will be excluded from the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

100 participants in 2 patient groups

Healthy Controls

No Intervention group

Description:

The healthy control group will be an age matched sample of unmedicated healthy adults who will be recruited and imaged once at baseline and the data compared with that of OCD subjects at baseline.

OCD Group

Experimental group

Description:

The OCD group will comprise of unmedicated individuals with clinically significant OCD symptoms. OCD Subjects will be randomized, double-blind, to receive immediate or delayed (by 6 weeks as a placebo lead-in) pharmacotherapy.

Treatment:

Drug: Fluoxetine - immediate treatment

Drug: Fluoxetine - delayed treatment