NCT04166071

Opioids and Social Support Enhanced Extinction Effects

Revisiting Safety Signals: Examining a Separate Safety Mechanism for Social Support Figures

• Status: Enrolling By Invitation
• Phase: EARLY_Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 60 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

University of California, Los Angeles researchers will recruit healthy participants (age 18-35) to participate in a study examining whether the administration of naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, eliminates the ability of social support figure reminders to enhance fear extinction--a process during which a threatening cue is learned to not predict a negative or threatening outcome (i.e., electric shock) by being repeatedly presented in the absence of that outcome. After undergoing an email screening, a telephone screening, an in lab screening, and a health screening, 60 participants will be enrolled in the study. During the experiment, 30 participants will be administered naltrexone and 30 participants will be administered placebo (both participants and experimenters will be blind to condition) before undergoing a fear extinction procedure in which threatening cues--cues that predict electric shock--will be paired with either an image of a social support figure (provided by participants) or a second threatening cue. These pairings will be presented repeatedly in the absence of shock in order for fear extinction to occur. Participants will return for a follow-up test to determine if fear extinction was successful.

Conditions

• Fear

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Naltrexone	Half of the participants will be randomly assigned to take one dose of naltrexone (50mg, capsule form) during the experimental session
DRUG	Placebo	Half of the participants will be randomly assigned to take a placebo capsule during the experimental session

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-12-13
• Primary completion: 2026-09-01
• Completion: 2026-09-01
• First posted: 2019-11-18
• Last updated: 2025-10-20

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated drug study