Effects of MDMA on Emotional and Social Memories

University of Chicago84 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of MDMA on encoding and retrieval of emotional and social memories in healthy young adults. The study will explore the effects on memory retrieval when the drug is administered 1) before encoding, and 2) before retrieval.

Here, we aim to investigate the effects of MDMA (1 mg/kg) on the encoding and retrieval of positive, negative, social, and neutral memories. The study will use a between subjects design with three groups (N = 20 per group). Two of the groups will be randomly assigned to receive MDMA before one of the two stages of memory: Encoding (ENC) or Retrieval (RET). The third group will receive placebo only (PLC). All three groups will receive capsules before viewing the study materials, and at retrieval two days later, but they will receive MDMA only in the capsule appropriate to their condition, and other capsules will contain placebo. Participants will participate in two sessions: a viewing session during which they will view emotional and neutral stimuli, followed 48 hours later by a retrieval session, during which there will be a surprise memory test with two components (verbally cued recollection and picture recognition). On all sessions subjects will also complete mood questionnaires.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

TRIPLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Healthy

Interventions

MDMADRUG

This is a between subjects, double-blind, placebo controlled design. We are administering oral MDMA to healthy volunteers to measure its effects on the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval stages of memory.

PlaceboDRUG

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 40 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Normal healthy males and females, aged 18-40 years. Exclusion Criteria: 1. any current medical condition requiring medication or abnormal electrocardiogram 2. current or past medical condition considered to be a contraindication for the study conditions 3. any current Axis I psychiatric disorder (APA, 1994) including Substance Use Disorder, or Anxiety Disorder or Major Depression in the past year, any history of psychosis 4. less than high school education 5. lack of fluency in English 6. night shift work 7. pregnancy, lactation, or plans to become pregnant 8. use of hormonal contraception

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Probability of Accurately Recalling Visual Stimuli

During encoding, participants were presented with labels that were sometimes followed by pictures. During the first memory test, participant were presented again with all of the labels and asked, "Did you see this picture?" Hit and false alarm rates were then calculated, and memory accuracy was measured by hits minus false alarms.

Time frame: 90 minutes into Session 2

Secondary Outcomes

Probability of Accurately Recognizing Visual Stimuli

After the cued recollection task, all of the pictures were presented to participants (i.e., the ones that they had seen, as well as the ones that were not seen). Participants were then asked, "Did you see this picture?" Hit and false alarm rates were calculated, and memory accuracy was measured as hits minus false alarms.

Time frame: 90 minutes into Session 2

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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