Pexacerfont for Stress-induced Food Craving

Summary

Background: \- Stress can cause people to give in to temptations to eat less healthily. People who are on weight loss diets often have problems sticking to their diets when they are stressed. Some tests have shown that the drug pexacerfont can help reduce stress-related seeking of high-calorie foods. However, it has not been tested on reducing food craving. Researchers want to test pexacerfont on people who are on diets to see if it can reduce stress-related food cravings. Objectives: \- To see if pexacerfont can help reduce stress-induced food cravings. Eligibility: \- Individuals between 21 and 65 years of age who are on a diet to control their weight. Design: * Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. This study requires seven visits over about 35 days. * Participants will take either pexacerfont or placebo pills during the study. They will have three pills every morning. They will record video of themselves taking the pills every day. * Every evening, participants will fill out a questionnaire. It will ask questions about feelings and behaviors related to eating and food craving. * Participants will have regular study visits while taking the pills. The visits will involve questions about stressful situations and food cravings. One visit will involve a mildly stressful math test, followed by tasting of different foods. This test will look at whether pexacerfont can affect food preferences. Participants will provide blood and saliva samples as directed at these study visits. * Participants will have follow-up phone calls 1, 3, and 6 months after the end of the study.

Timeline

Start

2012-06

Primary completion

2015-09

Completion

2015-09

Publications

• Background Avena NM, Rada P, Hoebel BG. Evidence for sugar addiction: behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008;32(1):20-39. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.04.019. Epub 2007 May 18.
• Background Binneman B, Feltner D, Kolluri S, Shi Y, Qiu R, Stiger T. A 6-week randomized, placebo-controlled trial of CP-316,311 (a selective CRH1 antagonist) in the treatment of major depression. Am J Psychiatry. 2008 May;165(5):617-20. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07071199. Epub 2008 Apr 15.
• Background Cottone P, Sabino V, Roberto M, Bajo M, Pockros L, Frihauf JB, Fekete EM, Steardo L, Rice KC, Grigoriadis DE, Conti B, Koob GF, Zorrilla EP. CRF system recruitment mediates dark side of compulsive eating. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Nov 24;106(47):20016-20. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0908789106. Epub 2009 Nov 9.
• Epstein DH, Kennedy AP, Furnari M, Heilig M, Shaham Y, Phillips KA, Preston KL. Effect of the CRF1-receptor antagonist pexacerfont on stress-induced eating and food craving. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2016 Dec;233(23-24):3921-3932. doi: 10.1007/s00213-016-4424-5. Epub 2016 Sep 5.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.