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Not listed Phase 2 Interventional Accepts healthy volunteers

Proof of Mechanism Study for the Treatment of Social Anhedonia in ASD

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03243552

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03243552. 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 8, 2026, 5:42 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

Proof of Mecahism Study for the Treatment of Social Anhedonia in ASD

Brief summary

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

This project will use the experimental medicine approach of a Phase IIa Proof of Mechanism 16-week, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of L-DOPA versus placebo administration in combination with a 16 week social skills training group in order to: 1) identify differences in social reward processes in adolescent and young adult ASD participants versus healthy controls as measured by fMRI activation in reward circuitry; 2) provide evidence of dopaminergic moderating effects on social reward components in ASD with greater pre- to post-treatment changes expected in the subjects randomized to L-DOPA versus placebo; 3) examine the hypothesis that baseline readouts of putative dopamine signaling (wanting activation responses) will predict the extent of fMRI reward-related activation changes pre- to post-treatment; and, 4) examine the proposed relationship between pre- to post- L-DOPA fMRI reward changes and changes in individual self-report ratings of social wanting and ratings of videotaped positive affect in a structured interaction with an examiner. The study will enroll 56 participants with DSM-5 ASD between the ages of 13-30 years of age and 18 healthy control participants without histories of psychopathology for baseline comparisons.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT03243552
Recruitment status
Not listed
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 2
Enrollment
56 participants

Conditions and interventions

Conditions

Interventions

Drug · Behavioral

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
13 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
May 31, 2017
Primary completion
Nov 30, 2023
Completion
Nov 30, 2023
Last update posted
Jun 27, 2023

2017 – 2023

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles California 90095

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 NCT03243552, 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 Jun 27, 2023 · Synced Sep 8, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03243552 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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