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Terminated Not applicable Interventional

Using the Neuroscience of Fear Extinction for Anxiety Reduction

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03465137

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03465137. 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 7, 2026, 5:29 AM EDT

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

Official title

Developing a Mechanistic Neurobiological Model of Exposure Therapy Response Based on Fear Extinction Theory

Brief summary

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

Social anxiety disorder affects as many as 12% of Americans, resulting in significant distress and disability. Although exposure therapy is one of the best treatments available, as many as 25% of patients do not respond and we do not know why. Extinction learning is thought to be the mechanism of exposure therapy, and the neuroscience of extinction learning has advanced significantly since exposure therapy was developed; however, there has been little application towards improved clinical outcomes. This project aims to improve exposure therapy response for patients with social anxiety disorder by directly linking exposure therapy response to the neurobiology of extinction learning. It also aims to increase our scientific understanding of how brain circuits work to support extinction learning. To do this, 80 adults with social anxiety disorder will randomly be assigned to either receive exposure therapy right away, or to wait before therapy. Participants will all complete a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan to assess extinction learning before the therapy.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT03465137
Recruitment status
Terminated
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Not applicable
Lead sponsor
Stanford University
Other
Enrollment
32 participants

Conditions and interventions

Conditions

Interventions

Behavioral

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
Jan 13, 2018
Primary completion
Sep 29, 2021
Completion
Sep 29, 2021
Last update posted
Oct 7, 2021

2018 – 2021

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
Stanford University Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Palo Alto California 94304

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 NCT03465137, 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 Oct 7, 2021 · Synced Sep 7, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03465137 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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