Conditions: PTSD
Keywords: posttraumatic stress disorder oxytocin Prolonged Exposure
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 17
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, debilitating anxiety disorder that may develop after direct or indirect exposure to traumatic events. Prolonged Exposure (PE) is a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy modality with a wealth of empirical support demonstrating its efficacy to treat PTSD in a variety of populations. The neuropeptide oxytocin is a promising new pharmacotherapeutic agent with prominent anxiolytic effects . Despite a strong biological and theoretical rationale for investigating the potential effectiveness of augmenting PE with intranasal oxytocin, no studies to date have done so. The current study aims to address this important gap in the literature by examining changes in PTSD symptoms following PE treatment combined with a) 40 IU of intranasal oxytocin or b) placebo.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: 40 IU intranasal oxytocin spray arm 2: Placebo is matching saline nasal spray

Interventions: intervention 1: Oxytocin intervention 2: Placebos
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 40 IU oxytocin nasal spray, self-administered intervention 2: Saline nasal spray, self-administered

Protocol document: