Sensory and Opioid Mechanisms of Affective Touch
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03096353. 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.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Background: Medicines called opioids are used to treat pain. The body also produces opioids. These are called endorphins. Researchers want to learn more about how these natural opioids work. This might lead to new therapies for conditions like depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Objective: To determine how opioids affect how pleasant or unpleasant it feels when the skin is touched, compressed, or heated. Eligibility: Healthy right-handed adults ages 18-50. Design: Participants will be screened under another protocol. Participants will have 2 study visits with the same procedures, at least 1 day apart. Each visit will last 3-4 hours. Participants will wear shorts or change into scrubs so researchers can test on their legs. Participants will answer questions and have urine tests. Participants will have a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The scanner is a metal cylinder in a strong magnetic field. Participants will lie on a table that slides in and out of the cylinder. A device called a coil will be placed over the head. During MRI, participants will have sensory testing. They will get several types of touch to the calf of the leg. These include gentle brushing of the skin, gentle compression of the calf with an inflation sleeve, and heat stimuli. Participants will have an intravenous line placed each day. They will get naloxone 1 day and saline the other day. Participants will not be told which they get. Naloxone is a drug that blocks opioid receptors. The MRI and sensory testing will then be repeated. After each stimuli block, participants will rate the sensations as well as their mood and calmness/anxiety.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03096353
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Early Phase 1
- Enrollment
- 29 participants
Conditions and interventions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 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
- Jul 31, 2017
- Primary completion
- Oct 30, 2018
- Completion
- Oct 30, 2018
- Last update posted
- Jul 29, 2021
2017 – 2018
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health Clinical Center | Bethesda | Maryland | 20892 | — |
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 NCT03096353, 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 29, 2021 · Synced Sep 12, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03096353 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.