ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05415982Updated Feb 6, 2024

Diet Induced Ketosis for Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a Feasibility Study

An interventional study of Ketogenic Diet in PTSD and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, sponsored by Jens Rikardt Andersen. Completed at 1 site in Norway. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-02-06.

Sponsored by Jens Rikardt Andersen · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
3
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Many patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are resistant to established treatment consisting of psychotherapy. Patients often go years with this debilitating disorder without experiencing sufficient improvement. Approximately 1/3 of patients will drop out of treatment because of psychological burden and overactivation. A novel ketogenic diet treatment could amend established treatment, and potentially upregulate the threshold for exciting neurons in dysfunctional brain regions, mediated through various mechanisms. This may reduce PTSD symptoms, and thus enabling patients to respond to psychological treatment without getting overactivated and unable to process trauma. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to carry out a ketogenic diet therapy for patients with PTSD for four weeks.

Read the detailed description

The study aims to include 10 PTSD patients. If a participant drops out of the study, or if the study is otherwise terminated for a participant, another patient will be recruited until 10 have completed the study. The primary objectives of this feasibility study are to investigate if it is possbile to carry out a ketogenic diet therapy for patients with PTSD for 4 weeks, and systematically gain insight in all challenges relating to these objectives. The participants will follow a ketogenic diet for 4 weeks, and they are asked to self report daily on results from finger pricking blood measurements (glucose and betahydroxybutyrate (BHB)) to establish they are in a ketogenic state and are compliant to diet. Participants will also report food intake and side effects daily to be evaluated by the principal investigator. Participants are further asked to specify and elaborate on which adverse effects or other reasons as to why it is challenging to follow the study diet and/or procedures. The study lacks in power to statistically evaluate if ketosis has any effect on PTSD symptoms, however this secondary objective will be preliminary evaluated.

02

Conditions studied

  • PTSD
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
03

In context

Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

2,682 studies on the registry are indexed under Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; 601 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 3 is below the median of 69 across 2,196 interventional studies indexed under Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic.

Browse Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic studies →

Lead sponsor

Jens Rikardt Andersen is the lead sponsor of 24 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

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

  • Patients 18-65 years
  • Diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Understand and speak Scandinavian language

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • \< 18
  • Metabolic disorders contraindicating a ketogenic diet
  • Dysregulated Diabetes Mellitus
  • Medicated for elevated triglycerides
  • Pancreas, kidney or liver disorders
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

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.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
3 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Ketogenic Diet

    Ketogenic Diet every day for 4 weeks

    Other: Ketogenic Diet

Interventions

  • OtherKetogenic Diet

    The intervention is a ketogenic diet based on high-fat ketogenic meals prepared by the study participants, complemented with ketogenic food products from Natural Ketosis and Vitaflo. Exogenous ketones are provided by Audacious Nutrition. The macronutrient composition of the ketogenic diet given approx.: Fat 87 E%, Carbohydrate 3 E%, Protein 10 E%,

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Recruitment

    How many patients can be included in the intervention group (percent out of all eligible patients during the inclusion period)

    Time frame: 25 weeks

  2. Completing the intervention

    How many patients complete the intervention of four weeks (percent out of all included patients) Completion is defined as adherence to the intervention daily for four weeks.

    Time frame: 4 weeks

  3. Maintaining ketosis

    Could ketosis (mean b-BHB ≥ 0,5 mmol/L out of three daily measurements) be maintained for the duration of intervention (percent out of intervention days since ketosis first was obtained)

    Time frame: 4 weeks

  4. Adverse reactions related to the ketogenic treatment

    The occurrence of adverse reactions (percent of days with adverse reactions during intervention)

    Time frame: 4 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Assessment of severity of PTSD symptoms

    Change in PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 scale (PCL-5). 20 part item, 0-4 likert scale. Minimum value 0, maximum value 80 (Lower score is better)

    Time frame: 4 weeks

  2. Measure of Health-Related Quality of Life

    Change in RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 (RAND-36) - Scale is converted to numerical values for physical and mental health (each item is scored on a 0 to 100 range, so that the lowest and highest score are 0 and 100, respectively). Items in the same scale are averaged together to create 8 scale scores. A higher score defines a more faborable health state.

    Time frame: 4 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Søndre Oslo Distriktspsykiatriske Senter (DPS)
    Oslo, 1281, Norway
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

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 Aug 2022 to primary completion in Feb 2023, 5 months.

Of 1,064 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, half reached primary completion within 35 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 17 and three quarters within 53. This study's 5 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 1,092 studies reached it within 34 months; a quarter within 17 and three quarters within 53.

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

Registered
Mar 23, 2022
First posted
Jun 13, 2022
StartActual
Aug 20, 2022
Primary completionActual
Feb 8, 2023
CompletionActual
Feb 8, 2023
Last update
Feb 6, 2024
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 6, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05415982
Lead sponsor
Jens Rikardt Andersen
Responsible party
Jens Rikardt Andersen (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
Jun 13, 2022
Start date
Aug 20, 2022
Primary completion
Feb 8, 2023
Completion
Feb 8, 2023
Last update
Feb 6, 2024

Study contacts

Tobias Furuholmen-Jenssen, Student
principal investigator · University of Copenhagen
Jens R Andersen, MD, MPA
study director · University of Copenhagen

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 Feb 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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