Clinical trial NCT01761032: Gauging Of Light Dependent Experiences Through Neuroimaging (GOLDEN)
Official title: Dopamine Response to Ultraviolet Light in Frequent and Infrequent Tanners
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Compulsive and Infrequent Tanners
Keywords: Tanning
neuroimaging
dopamine
MRI
SPECT
Lead sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
First posted: 2013-01-04
Enrollment: 22
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Maximum age (years): 40
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Subjects will be recruited though flyers and advertisements. Advertisements will be placed in college newspapers. Flyers will be placed on college campuses, and local Dallas stores and beauty salons.

Brief summary: In the proposed study, the investigators will assess the brain's dopamine response to UVR light in individuals who use tanning beds both frequently and infrequently.

Detailed description: UV radiation has recently been classified as a known human carcinogen by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Nevertheless, the voluntary exposure to sunlight continues unabated despite progressively increasing rates of ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-induced illness and death, particularly skin cancer. An increasingly common form of UVR administration is through the use of indoor tanning salons. Almost 30 million Americans, including 20% of 18-39 year olds, visit indoor tanning salons each year. Frequent and excessive tanning, despite a growing understanding by those who tan of the morbidity and mortality associated with tanning, suggests that UVR may impart rewarding effects beyond the assumed cosmetic benefits. Recent studies, in fact, have shown that up to 40% of both frequent beach and salon tanners exhibit signs and symptoms consistent with an addictive disorder, including an inability to decrease their tanning frequencies, compulsive tanning, and/or continued tanning despite adverse consequences. As the mesostriatal dopaminergic pathway plays a key role in reward and addiction, the investigators propose to extend this novel finding by directly assessing the mesostriatal dopaminergic reward pathway in compulsive and infrequent tanners. This pathway plays a key role in the experience and integration of reward and alterations in this system have been observed in addicted populations. Specifically, 1) striatal dopamine is released in response to rewarding substances and experiences, 2) striatal dopamine2/3 receptor densities are lower in cocaine, alcohol, opioid, and nicotine dependent, as well as obese, subjects, and 3) reward-induced striatal dopamine efflux has been shown to be decreased in addicted, relative to non-addicted, subjects.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Between ages 21-40
* Tan at least twice weekly over the last year (Frequent Tanners)
* Tan less than twice a week over the last year (Infrequent Tanners)
* Meet modified DSM-IV criteria for Frequent Tanners

Exclusion Criteria:

* Medications that effect brain functioning
* Other medical or psychiatric disorders that may affect neural functioning.
* Drug and Alcohol abuse or dependence
* Pregnancy

Primary outcomes:
measure: Striatal dopaminergic efflux
timeFrame: Up to one hour post-administration of UVR
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Striatal D2 receptors
timeFrame: 90 minutes prior to UVR administration
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Dallas
country: United States
facility: UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Division on Addictions
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
name: Bryon Adinoff, M.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: