Conditions: Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Keywords: body dysmorphic disorder levetiracetam
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 17
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to assess the usefulness of a medication (Levetiracetam) for people with body dysmorphic disorder.

Detailed description:
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a perceived defect in appearance (e.g., a "large" nose or facial "scarring"), is a relatively common disorder that causes marked distress and impairment in functioning. Recent data suggests that adults with BDD may respond to serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs); however, response to SRIs is often only partial. About one third of patients do not respond to an SRI. Furthermore, patients may stop taking SRIs because of side effects (e.g., sexual side effects). For these reasons, additional monotherapy and SRI augmentation strategies are greatly needed.

Levetiracetam is primarily used as an antiseizure medication and has a wider safety margin than other antiepileptics. Preliminary scientific studies may suggest that it may be helpful for certain psychiatric symptoms and disorders. In the present study we propose to obtain pilot data on 1) levetiracetam monotherapy and 2) levetiracetam augmentation of SRIs in patients with BDD.

Arms:
arm 1: Open-label trial; all participants received levetiracetam

Interventions: intervention 1: Levetiracetam
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: The initial levetiracetam dose will be 250 mg/day, which will be increased to 250 mg BID after 1 week. The dose will then be increased by 500 mg/day each week (given in BID dosing) to a maximum of 3,000 mg/day. The dose will be raised more slowly or the maximum dose will not be reached if response occurs at a lower dose or side effects are problematic. Subjects who are unable to tolerate at least 500 mg a day of levetiracetam will be withdrawn from the study.

Protocol document: