NCT03050541

Effects of MDMA on Emotional and Social Memories

The Effects of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA) on Encoding, Consolidation, and Retrieval of Emotional and Social Memories

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 84 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Chicago · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of MDMA on encoding and retrieval of emotional and social memories in healthy young adults. The study will explore the effects on memory retrieval when the drug is administered 1) before encoding, and 2) before retrieval.

Detailed description

Here, we aim to investigate the effects of MDMA (1 mg/kg) on the encoding and retrieval of positive, negative, social, and neutral memories. The study will use a between subjects design with three groups (N = 20 per group). Two of the groups will be randomly assigned to receive MDMA before one of the two stages of memory: Encoding (ENC) or Retrieval (RET). The third group will receive placebo only (PLC). All three groups will receive capsules before viewing the study materials, and at retrieval two days later, but they will receive MDMA only in the capsule appropriate to their condition, and other capsules will contain placebo. Participants will participate in two sessions: a viewing session during which they will view emotional and neutral stimuli, followed 48 hours later by a retrieval session, during which there will be a surprise memory test with two components (verbally cued recollection and picture recognition). On all sessions subjects will also complete mood questionnaires.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	MDMA	This is a between subjects, double-blind, placebo controlled design. We are administering oral MDMA to healthy volunteers to measure its effects on the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval stages of memory.
DRUG	Placebo

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-12-01
• Primary completion: 2016-09-01
• Completion: 2016-09-01
• First posted: 2017-02-13
• Last updated: 2018-06-29
• Results posted: 2018-06-29