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Withdrawn Phase 2 Interventional

Oxytocin Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03636555

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03636555. 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 11, 2026, 10:36 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

Intranasal Oxytocin Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Brief summary

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

To further test the effectiveness of oxytocin in heavy drinkers, half of the cohort in the proposed study will meet criteria for heavy drinking (\>35 standard drinks/week \[men\], \>28 standard drinks/week \[women\] for at least 4 consecutive weeks). However, the investigators think it important to expand the cohort of the proposed study to include subjects with moderate Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) who meet lower drinking criteria so the outcome of the study will be relevant to a larger percentage of individuals who have AUD. The lower drinking criteria will be minimum of 14 drinks/week (women) or 21 drinks/week (men) with an average of at least two heavy drinking days (≥5 standard drinks for men and ≥4 standard drinks for women) each week in the 4-week period prior to screening. As in the R21-funded Preliminary Study, individuals recruited from the community who meet study criteria based on assessment during a screening clinic visit will be randomized to twice a day (BID) intranasal oxytocin or intranasal placebo during a subsequent clinic visit. After instruction by research staff during the randomization clinic visit, subjects will self-administer intranasal treatments from blind-labeled spray bottles that they take home. During clinic visits at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 weeks after randomization, drinking since the last visit will be quantified and other measures summarized above will be obtained. Subjects will self-administer test intranasal treatments for 12 weeks. Drinking will also be quantified during clinic visits at 6 and 12 weeks after cessation of intranasal treatments. This clinical trial will be the first adequately powered, double blind, placebo-controlled trial examining the efficacy and tolerability of BID intranasal oxytocin (40 IU/dose; 80 IU/d) on alcohol drinking in AUD. The trial will also be the first to prospectively examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin on anxiety symptoms in individuals with AUD.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT03636555
Recruitment status
Withdrawn
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 2
Enrollment
Not listed

Conditions and interventions

Interventions

Drug

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
21 Years to 65 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
Sep 30, 2019
Primary completion
Aug 31, 2022
Completion
Aug 31, 2022
Last update posted
Nov 12, 2019

2019 – 2022

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
Cort Pedersen Durham North Carolina 27712

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 NCT03636555, 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 Nov 12, 2019 · Synced Sep 11, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03636555 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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