CompletedNot applicable

Role of Serotonin in Acute and Subacute MDMA Effects

NCT00838305 · California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute

Closed to entry

Status

Not accepting participants

Not applicable

Phase

Target enrolment

Study sites

1 US states

What it is testing

Summary

The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of MDMA (particularly its emotional effects) and to determine the role of serotonin in these effects. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, which is a chemical that is released by some brain cells to communicate with other brain cells. Many of the effects of MDMA are thought to be the result of increased serotonin release. In order to understand the effects of MDMA and role of serotonin in these effects, we will administer MDMA alone and in combination with the antidepressant citalopram (one trade name for this is Celexa). Citalopram decreases the ability of MDMA to release serotonin. Citalopram will therefore decrease any of MDMA's effects that are the result of serotonin release; we want to measure this.

Summary as written by the trial’s own sponsor and published on ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. It is the sponsor’s description, reproduced unedited, not an assessment by this site.

What counts as success

Primary outcome measures

To determine if administration of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram decreases the subacute (post 24hr) discontinuation effects of MDMA in experienced MDMA users given a modest dose of MDMA
Measured over 24 hours

A trial succeeds or fails on its primary outcome, declared in advance. Everything else it reports is secondary by definition.

Who can take part

Eligibility, as published

18 Years to 50 Years

Ages

All

Sex

Accepted

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy men or women aged 18 to 50 years * Experienced with MDMA Exclusion Criteria: * Significant physical or psychiatric illness which might impair the ability to safely complete the study or that might be complicated by the study drugs, including prior seizures (after age 8), history of major depression, or other active neurological disease or clinically significant abnormalities on physical examination or screening laboratory values

Where

1 study site

Facility	City	Region	Country
CPMC Research Institute, St.Luke's Hospital	San Francisco	California	United States

On the registry

Contact the trial directly

This site does not enrol anyone and is not involved in this trial. To ask about taking part, use the sponsor’s own contact details on the official registry record, which is also where the most current version of everything above lives.

Before you do, the preparation checklist lists what a site will ask you on a first call and what is worth asking them. It is free and collects nothing.

NCT00838305 on ClinicalTrials.gov →

Last updated in the registry 2013-05-31. Registry records change; this page reflects the data build of 2026-08-25.

Where this trial sits

Substance

MDMA

Recruiting in

California115

All 2 trials from California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute →