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CompletedNCT03863366Updated Mar 5, 2019

Effects of Acute Prucalopride Administration in Healthy Volunteers

An interventional study of Prucalopride and Placebo in Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action, Depression and Depressive Disorder, sponsored by University of Oxford. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 40 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-03-05.

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

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 2 years after the study started (first participant enrolled Feb 2017, registered Feb 2019).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
41
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 40 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

This study will investigate whether administration of a single dose of the serotonin receptor subtype 4 (5-HT4) partial agonist prucalopride has effects on emotional processing and non-emotional cognition in healthy volunteers, compared to placebo administration. Using an experimental medicine approach, the effects of prucalopride on cognitive biomarkers of antidepressant action will be characterised. In a double-blind design, participants will be randomised to receive a single dose of either prucalopride (1mg) or placebo. All participants will come for a Screening Visit to ensure their suitability for the study. If they meet study criteria, they will be invited to a Research Visit, where they will receive the study medication and wait for two hours while the drug reaches peak levels. After two hours they will be asked to complete a series of computer-based tasks measuring emotional, non-emotional cognitive processing, and reward processing. The primary study hypothesis is that acute prucalopride administration will have positive effects on processing facial expressions of emotion. Secondary hypotheses are that acute prucalopride administration will affect other measures of emotional processing, and non-emotional cognition.

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Conditions studied

  • Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
  • Depression
  • Depressive Disorder
  • Mood Disorders
  • Mental Disorder
  • Antidepressive Agents
  • Cognition

Keywords

  • 5-HT4
  • Prucalopride
  • Resolor
  • Emotional Processing
  • Healthy Volunteers
03

In context

Depressive Disorder

4,845 studies on the registry are indexed under Depressive Disorder; 514 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 41 is below the median of 80 across 3,999 interventional studies indexed under Depressive Disorder.

Browse Depressive Disorder studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Oxford is the lead sponsor of 794 studies on the registry; 117 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 40 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Male or female
  • Aged 18-40 years
  • Willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study
  • Sufficiently fluent English to understand and complete the task

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current usage of psychoactive medication (except the contraceptive pill, the Depo-Provera injection or the progesterone implant)
  • Any past or current Axis 1 DSM-IV psychiatric disorder
  • Significant medical condition
  • Current or past gastro-intestinal disorder or irritable bowel syndrome
  • Current pregnancy or breastfeeding
  • Known lactate deficiency or any other problem absorbing lactose, galactose or glucose
  • Current or past history of drug or alcohol dependency
  • Participation in a psychological or medical study involving the use of medication within the last 3 months
  • Previous participation in a study using the same, or similar, emotional processing tasks
  • Smoker > 5 cigarettes per day
  • Typically drinks > 6 caffeinated drinks per day
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
41 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Prucalopride

    1mg prucalopride capsule

    Drug: Prucalopride

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo

    Lactose placebo capsule

    Other: Placebo

Interventions

  • DrugPrucalopride

    1mg prucalopride tablet, encapsulated in white capsule

    Also known as: Resolor

  • OtherPlacebo

    Lactose placebo tablet, encapsulated in white capsule

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Recognition of positive and negative facial expressions

    Accuracy to identify positive vs. negative facial expressions of emotion on the FERT

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

Secondary outcomes

  1. Recall of emotional words

    Number of positive and negative words correctly (and incorrectly) recalled in the EREC task

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

  2. Recognition of emotional words

    Number of positive and negative words correctly (and incorrectly) recognised in the EMEM task

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

  3. Attentional vigilance to emotional faces

    Attentional vigilance to fearful and happy faces in the FDOT task

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

  4. Recall of words Auditory Verbal Learning Task (AVLT)

    Number of items correctly and incorrectly recalled across blocks

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

  5. Reward and loss sensitivity

    Proportion of participants on each trial that chose the correct (high probability) symbol in the win condition, and the incorrect (high probability) symbol in the loss condition of the PILT task

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

  6. Working memory performance

    Mean accuracy and reaction time on 1-back, 2-back and 3-back conditions compared with 0-back condition on the N-back task

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

  7. Contextual learning

    Difference between reaction time and accuracy on novel and repeated arrays in the contextual cueing task

    Time frame: Day 1: 2-5 hours post drug administration

07

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Oxford
    Oxford, OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
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References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 5, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03863366
Lead sponsor
University of Oxford
Responsible party
drsusannahmurphy (Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford) — Principal investigator
First posted
Mar 5, 2019
Start date
Feb 7, 2017
Primary completion
Aug 8, 2017
Completion
Aug 8, 2017
Last update
Mar 5, 2019

Study contacts

Susannah E Murphy, DPhil
principal investigator · University of Oxford

Oversight

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

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This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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