ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03434054Updated Feb 19, 2018

The Effect of Losartan on Emotional Processing in Healthy Volunteers

An interventional study of Losartan and Placebo in Healthy Volunteers, sponsored by University of Oxford. Completed. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 50 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2018-02-19.

Primary conditionAnxiety Disorders(the registry's first term)UnverifiedIs this wrong?The registry often attaches Anxiety Disorders to studies about something else, and this study's title and listed conditions do not name it. No better condition is named, so the registry's term is kept.

Sponsored by University of Oxford · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 7 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jun 2016, registered Jan 2018).

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Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This experimental medicine study explores whether a single dose of losartan (50mg) versus placebo affects the processing of positive and negative stimuli, using fMRI.

Read the detailed description

Losartan has been shown to accelerate fear extinction in animals and to prevent the development of anxiety disorders in humans, emphasising its potential to possibly enhance exposure therapy in humans. This study explores the basic effects of losartan on emotional processing, to identify neural mechanisms by which the drug might have synergistic effects on psychological treatment in humans.

In a double-blind between-groups design, 30 healthy volunteers will be randomised to a group receiving a single dose of losartan (50mg) versus placebo, and this study will measure the effects of probing renin-angiotensin function on emotional information processing, using functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI). Such knowledge will ultimately be essential for the development of more effective pharmaco-psychological treatment approaches for anxiety disorders.

02

Conditions studied

  • Healthy Volunteers

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Keywords

  • losartan
  • emotional processing
  • anxiety
  • magnet resonance imaging
  • MRI
03

In context

Anxiety Disorders Unverified

7,207 studies on the registry are indexed under Anxiety Disorders; 1,682 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 30 is below the median of 80 across 6,062 interventional studies indexed under Anxiety Disorders.

Browse Anxiety Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Oxford is the lead sponsor of 812 studies on the registry; 119 are open to participants now.

Compared within Anxiety Disorders, the registry's first condition term, which may not be this study's main condition. Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily. How we classify →

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • willing and able to provide
  • male or Female, aged 18-50
  • (BMI) of 18-30 kg/m2
  • fluent English skills
  • non- or light-smoker (\< 5 cigarettes a day)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Female participant who is pregnant or breast-feeding
  • central nervous system (CNS) active medication during the last 6 weeks
  • Current blood pressure/other heart medication (esp. aliskiren or beta blockers)
  • Intravascular fluid depletion
  • Past or present (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) axis-I diagnosis
  • Alcohol or substance abuse
  • First-degree family member with a history of a severe psychiatric disease
  • Impaired liver or kidney function
  • Lifetime history of epilepsy or other neurological disease, systemic infection, or hepatic, cardiac, obstructive respiratory, renal, cerebrovascular, metabolic, endocrine or pulmonary disease or disorder which, in the opinion of the investigator, may either put the participants at risk because of participation in the study, or may influence the result of the study, or the participant's ability to participate in the study.
  • Insufficient English skills
  • participated in another study involving certain medication during last 6 weeks
  • to magnet resonance imaging (MRI) scanning (e.g. pacemaker)
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(5)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

DSM diagnostic criteria

The American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental health diagnoses. DSM-5 (2013, revised as DSM-5-TR in 2022) replaced DSM-IV, and some studies still name the older edition. “Meets DSM criteria for …” means diagnosed by that edition’s diagnostic criteria, usually by a clinician in an interview.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Investigator)
Enrollment
30 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Losartan

    single dose of 50mg losartan, tablet, over-encapsulated, to be taken orally

    Drug: Losartan

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo

    single dose of placebo (main ingredient microcrystalline cellulose), tablet, over-encapsulated, to be taken orally

    Other: Placebo

Interventions

  • blood pressure medication

    Also known as: Losartan Potassium

  • OtherPlacebo

    non-active sham intervention

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. BOLD signal change

    BOLD signal change during functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI)

    Time frame: 1 day

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Publications

  • Reinecke A, Browning M, Klein Breteler J, Kappelmann N, Ressler KJ, Harmer CJ, Craske MG. Angiotensin Regulation of Amygdala Response to Threat in High-Trait-Anxiety Individuals. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2018 Oct;3(10):826-835. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2018.05.007. Epub 2018 Jun 5. PubMed 29980493 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Jun 2016 to primary completion in Jun 2017, 12 months.

Of 3,841 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Anxiety Disorders, half reached primary completion within 12 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 28. This study's 12 months is close to that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 3,943 studies reached it within 12 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 28.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 30, 2018
First posted
Feb 15, 2018
StartActual
Jun 1, 2016
Primary completionActual
Jun 30, 2017
CompletionActual
Jun 30, 2017
Last update
Feb 19, 2018
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 19, 2018, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03434054
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Feb 15, 2018
Start date
Jun 1, 2016
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2017
Completion
Jun 30, 2017
Last update
Feb 19, 2018

Study contacts

Andrea Reinecke, PhD
study chair · University of Oxford

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2018. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Losartan

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