NCT06297278

Exercise Facilitation of Adolescent Fear Extinction, Frontolimbic Circuitry, and Endocannabinoids

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 174 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Wayne State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 14 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Anxiety disorders commonly begin during adolescence, and are characterized by deficits in the ability to inhibit or extinguish pathological fear. Recent research has provided new understanding of how fear is learned and can be regulated in the adolescent brain, and how the endocannabinoid system shapes these processes; however, these advances have not yet translated into improved therapeutic outcomes for adolescents with anxiety. This study will test whether a behavioral intervention, acute exercise, can help to improve fear regulation by enhancing brain activity and endocannabinoid signaling. This line of research may ultimately lead to more effect treatments for adolescent anxiety, and to new preventive strategies for at-risk youth.

Conditions

• Adolescence

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Moderate Intensity Exercise	Participants randomized to the active (moderate intensity) exercise condition will complete a 3-minute warm-up at low speed on a treadmill. Speed and incline will be increased in 3-minute increments until moderate-intensity exercise, defined as participants staying within a zone of 60-80% AAMHR with the target being to attain and maintain 70-75% AAMHR while briskly walking and/or jogging depending on current fitness status, is reached for a total of 30 min.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-05-17
• Primary completion: 2028-04-30
• Completion: 2028-04-30
• First posted: 2024-03-07
• Last updated: 2025-08-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States