NCT02537197

The Effect of Regular Naltrexone Dosing on Disordered Gamblers

The Effect of Regular Naltrexone Dosing on Disordered Gamblers: An Examination of Neural Activation, Gambling Urges, and Gambling Behaviour

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 35 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Calgary · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study examines the effect of regular naltrexone dosing on disordered gamblers. Gamblers will also be scanned pre- and post-treatment where we will investigate the functional changes to tasks designed to engage brain region associated with gambling and addiction. These changes will be correlated with treatment outcomes and urge scores.

Detailed description

This study will investigate the effects of regular dosing of naltrexone for the treatment of disordered gambling. It will also examine the changes of neurological functioning to tasks associated with addiction. Converging evidence suggests that disordered gambling shares similarities with substance dependence and disordered alcohol use. Naltrexone is a medication that is used to reduce the cravings and euphoria from opioids and alcohol use and some studies have shown that it also has efficacy as a treatment for problematic gambling. Pilot data suggest the prefrontal cortex is activated for a healthy subject during a delay-discounting task, possibly indicating some consideration of the delayed value of a hypothetical money amount. If discounting rates can be correlated with treatment outcomes and neurological activation, these tasks may provide a new predictive tool for treatment outcome. However, no previous study has examined the neurological changes from pharmacological treatments of gambling. This study will provide data on the differences between pre- and post-treatment of regular naltrexone dosing for disordered gamblers

Conditions

• Gambling

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Naltrexone	Regular opioid antagonist dosing of disordered gamblers

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-04-01
• Primary completion: 2022-05-26
• Completion: 2022-05-26
• First posted: 2015-09-01
• Last updated: 2022-06-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada