NCT06696482

Effort and Antidepressant Study Test

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: Phase 1 / Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Oxford · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The aim of this study is to investigate the behavioural effects and neural correlates of increasing serotonin levels in healthy volunteers, through a 7-day course of the SSRI escitalopram, on an effort-based decision-making task measuring self-benefiting and prosocial behaviours.

Detailed description

This study investigates the mechanisms behind motivation and apathy, focusing on how effort is dedicated to both self-benefiting and prosocial actions. Diminished motivation, often manifesting as apathy, is associated with poor health outcomes and is common in neurological disorders like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and small vessel cerebrovascular disease (SVD). While brain regions like the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and anterior insula (AI) are known to regulate motivation in reward-based decision-making for personal gain, prosocial motivation remains underexplored. Prosocial behaviour involves actions that benefit others and contribute to physical and psychological well-being. Recent studies suggest unique neural activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg) during prosocial actions, differing from self-benefiting behaviour. To the best of our knowledge, there is no prior evidence on how SSRIs might influence prosocial motivation or its neural correlates. This study will address this gap by examining SSRI effects on effort-based prosocial decision-making, potentially identifying novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying motivation for prosocial behaviour.

Conditions

• Effort Based Decision Making
• Prosocial Behavior
• Apathy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Escitalopram 10mg	Escitalopram 10 mg, encapsulated in an opaque capsule to facilitate blinding of participant and researcher
DRUG	Placebo 10 mg	Placebo 10 mg, encapsulated in an opaque capsule to facilitate blinding of participant and researcher

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-01-01
• Primary completion: 2025-09-01
• Completion: 2025-09-01
• First posted: 2024-11-20
• Last updated: 2024-11-20