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Completed No phase listed Observational

PET Assays of Striatal Dopamine Marker in Cocaine Craving

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT01036516

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01036516. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Sep 18, 2026, 2:21 PM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

PET Assays of Striatal Dopamine Markers in Cocaine Craving

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

Background: * Cues related to past drug use induce a particular pattern of brain activation, which has been correlated with craving for cocaine in active cocaine abusers. Researchers are interested in determining the role of the brain chemical dopamine in cue-elicited as well as spontaneous craving for cocaine. * To study the role of dopamine in cocaine craving, researchers will use positron emission tomography (PET) to compare the neural reactions of cocaine users with those of non-substance-abusing healthy volunteers. Researchers hope that the data gathered from this study will lead to the development of more effective anti-craving medications. Objectives: * To clarify the role of dopamine in cue-elicited responses that contribute to cocaine abuse. * To determine if PET results of this study differ with various means of administering PET chemicals. Eligibility: \- Individuals 21 to 44 years of age who are either current cocaine users (at least twice per week) or healthy volunteers without a history of drug abuse. Design: * Cocaine-using participants will enter the inpatient clinical research ward at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Addiction Research Center for 2 nights before the day of the study. In addition, these participants will stay overnight at NIDA the evening after each PET session and will be discharged the following day. Cocaine-using participants will be required to perform a balance test before the study to provide a baseline response in case they require anti-anxiety medications to cope with the effects of the study. * Control subjects will not be required to stay overnight and will arrive as outpatients for the PET session. All participants will be required to abstain from alcohol and caffeine consumption from midnight before each study session, and will not be permitted to smoke on the day of testing. * \- On the day of the study, participants will undergo a practice session to set up the PET scanning equipment. Following the practice session, participants will be shown video recordings of images that are related to nature (e.g., seashells) or to drug abuse (e.g., drug paraphernalia). Participant reactions will be studied through the PET monitoring, and the study will be conducted in two separate PET sessions with a break in between. Individuals in the cocaine-using group may receive anti-anxiety medication if the stimulus cues increase anxiety related to cocaine craving. * Different groups of participants will receive different methods of PET chemical administration, and researchers will compare these methods.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT01036516
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Observational
Phase
Not listed
Enrollment
14 participants

Conditions and interventions

Interventions

Not listed

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
21 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Healthy volunteers not accepted

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
Jun 22, 1998
Primary completion
Not listed
Completion
Mar 26, 2012
Last update posted
Jul 1, 2017

1998 – 2012

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Maryland 21205

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01036516, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Jul 1, 2017 · Synced Sep 18, 2026

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The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01036516 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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