A Double Blind Clinical Trial of DCS for Food Anxiety

NCT01996644 ↗

Completed 47 enrolled Washington University School of Medicine National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) · collab

RandomizedParallel-groupTriple-blindTreatment

Summary

This is a pilot study investigating if cycloserine (DCS; a learning enhancement medication) augments exposure therapy for food anxiety in patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa. The investigators expect that (a) exposure therapy will reduce anxiety (b) anxiety will be reduced more in the DCS relative to placebo condition (c) participants in the DCS condition will have a greater increase in Body Mass Index.

Timeline

Start: 2013-02
Primary completion: 2014-02
Completion: 2014-02

Outcome

Met primary endpoint

paper As hypothesized, participants in the D-cycloserine group showed a significantly greater increase in BMI than those in the placebo group PMID 26132687 ↗

Publications

Levinson CA, Rodebaugh TL, Fewell L, Kass AE, Riley EN, Stark L, McCallum K, Lenze EJ. D-Cycloserine facilitation of exposure therapy improves weight regain in patients with anorexia nervosa: a pilot randomized controlled trial. J Clin Psychiatry. 2015 Jun;76(6):e787-93. doi: 10.4088/JCP.14m09299.

Drugs

Evaluation	Drug	Modality	Dose	Route
Subject	Cycloserine	Small molecule	250 mg	—