The Brain on Whole Body Hyperthermia: A Neuroimaging Study
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02062840. 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.
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Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The investigators have observed in an open trial that a single session of whole body hyperthermia (WBH) induced rapid antidepressant effects that persisted for at least a week in patients with major depression (MDD) severe enough to warrant inpatient hospitalization. In addition to reducing depression, the single session of WBH induced a prolonged reduction in mean core body temperature, consistent with basic science data from our group suggesting that hyperthermia activates a skin-to-brain pathway that have been shown in animals to be important for mood and body temperature regulation. Consistent with this known anatomy in our preliminary study in depressed patients, reductions in core body temperature were highly correlated with reductions in depressive symptoms over the same time period (one week post WBH). Moreover, patients with higher mean core body temperature prior to treatment had enhanced antidepressant effects. Because increased body temperature is an outcome of poor functioning in the skin-to-brain pathway activated by WBH our data suggests that WBH may actually sensitize this pathway in ways that promote changes in brain functioning known to promote emotional well-being. The results of our first open trial have encouraged us to conduct a larger, more rigorous placebo-controlled, double blind study of WBH for MDD, which is currently underway at the University of Arizona Medical School. Missing from our assessments in this ongoing double-blind study is any measure of the impact of WBH on brain function. The current proposal addresses ths gap in our investigative portfolio by proposing to conduct a second, randomized trial of active vs. sham WBH that will examine the impact of WBH on measures of brain function known from prior studies to be important for both depression and its treatment.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT02062840
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 23 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- High intensity whole-body infrared heating Device
- Low intensity whole-body infrared heating Device
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and electrocardiogram (EKG) Device
- Questionnaires Other
Device · Other
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 30 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jan 31, 2014
- Primary completion
- Apr 30, 2015
- Completion
- Apr 30, 2015
- Last update posted
- Aug 9, 2015
2014 – 2015
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arizona | Tucson | Arizona | 85724 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
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About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02062840, 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 Aug 9, 2015 · Synced Sep 1, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02062840 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.