Conditions: Pathological Gambling
Keywords: Pathological Gambling ecopipam Dopamine
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: SEQUENTIAL
Enrollment: 34
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This study is designed to test the hypothesis that ecopipam is able to reduce urges to gamble in patients diagnosed with Pathological Gambling.

Detailed description:
The purpose of this study is to determine if ecopipam is able to stop urges to gamble in patients diagnosed with Pathological Gambling. Nerves communicate with each other by releasing chemicals called "neurotransmitters". One of these neurotransmitters in the brain is called "dopamine". After dopamine is released by the nerve it "talks" to other nerves by interacting with receptors that are unique to that neurotransmitter. Ecopipam is a drug that selectively blocks one family of dopamine receptors. Some scientists believe that the urge to gamble is related to having too much dopamine in the brain. By blocking the receptors that dopamine uses, ecopipam may be able to relieve the urge to gamble.

Arms:
arm 1: Ecopipam is a selective antagonist of one the classes of dopamine receptor. arm 2: Placebo given first week of the study.

Interventions: intervention 1: Ecopipam
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 50mg tablets

Protocol document: