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TrichotillomaniaNCT00947154

Trial of Aripiprazole in Trichotillomania

A study testing aripiprazole in people with Trichotillomania, run by Stanford University at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

No medication has been reliably shown to benefit those suffering from trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling). The current study proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of the medication aripiprazole for treatment of trichotillomania (TTM). Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 to 65 years
Conditions the study is for
Trichotillomania
What is being tested?
aripiprazole
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
12 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
Jul 2009to Jul 2010
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 to 65 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Eligible patients:
  • Must be outpatients between the ages of 18 and 65 at the start of study
  • May be male or female
  • Have DSM-IV trichotillomania of at least 6 months duration
  • Allowed psychotropic medications are limited to:
  • SSRIs (citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline), SNRIs (duloxetine, venlafaxine) and mirtazapine, as long as the dosage has not changed for 4 weeks prior to study enrollment.
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  • Other allowed medications include non-hypnotic sleeping agents, specifically trazodone, diphenhydramine, hydoxyzine and ramelteon.
  • If a patient is taking non-allowed psychotropic medications, he/she must be titrated off by the prescribing physician and be off of the medication for at least 2 weeks prior to trial enrollment.
  • We will not exclude patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for:
  • body dysmorphic disorder;
  • major depression;
  • dysthymia;
  • GAD, social phobia, panic disorder.

Who cannot join

  • We will exclude patients suffering from:
  • organic mental disorders;
  • psychotic mental disorders including delusional disorder, somatic type;
  • mental retardation or developmental disabilities;
  • substance or alcohol abuse;
  • depressive disorders with current suicidal risk;
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  • factitious disorders;
  • dissociative disorders;
  • obsessive compulsive disorder;
  • personality disorders sufficiently severe to interfere with cooperation with the study;
  • bipolar I or II disorder.
  • Patients taking psychotropic agents other than those specifically listed in item d above. If a patient is taking non-allowed psychotropic medications, he/she must be titrated off such medications by the prescribing physician and be off of the medication for 2 weeks prior to trial enrollment.
  • Pregnant or nursing women.
  • Patients with a known hypersensitivity or allergy to aripiprazole.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • Stanford University School of Medicine

    Stanford, California, 94305

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Open Label Trial of Aripiprazole in Trichotillomania.

No medication has been reliably shown to benefit those suffering from trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling). The current study proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of the medication aripiprazole for treatment of trichotillomania (TTM). Patients will take a gradually increased dose of the medication in an open-label study to see whether it relieves hair-pulling urges, decreases hair pulling behavior and is well tolerated.

Read the detailed description

The proposed study is an 8-week, open-label trial of aripiprazole. The study would enroll 10 patients diagnosed with TTM meeting DSM-IV criteria. Subjects would start at a dose of 5 mg, which can be reduced to 2 mg if initial dose is not tolerated. Dose will be increased by 5 mg every two weeks (or as tolerated, with a minimum increase of 2 mg) until a maximum target dose of 15 mg is reached at the beginning of week 5. Dosing would not be increased if a patient showed clinical improvement at a lower dose (defined as a 30% reduction in Massachusetts General Hairpulling Scale) or was intolerant of a further dose increase. Dose may not be increased after week 5; at any point it may be decreased because of intolerability. Modified dosing of aripiprazole will not automatically happen if a patient is taking fluoxetine or paroxetine, but awareness that increased aripiprazole levels are associated with P450 2D inhibition (and consequent tolerability of a given dose) may factor into clinical decisions to increase, maintain or decrease aripiprazole dosage.

Effectiveness: The primary measure of drug effect would be a change from baseline to endpoint in the Massachusetts General Hospital Hairpulling Scale (MGHHS) as well as the actual-pulling subscale (items 4,5,6; MGHHS-AP). Secondary measures would include the Clinical Global Impressions_Improvement scale (CGI-I), 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A).

Assessments: Primary efficacy measures will be assessed at baseline and at the end of weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8, or early termination. Week 2 and 6 follow-ups may occur over the telephone. Safety and tolerability will be assessed at each two-week interval. Secondary end-points will be assessed at baseline and weeks 4 and 8, or early termination.

Type and Number of Experimental Subjects and Controls: This study would enroll 10 patients at Stanford in a single-site study. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are described separately. Children will not be included in this proposed study, because the Investigator does not have clinical competency in child psychiatry and childhood Trichotillomania may be a different disorder than the condition seen in adults.

Being tested
aripiprazole
Keywords
trichotillomania, aripiprazole, treatment
Medical subject headings
Trichotillomania

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • aripiprazoleDrug

    Also called Abilify

    aripiprazole dose of 5 mg/d, which could be reduced to 2 mg/d if the initial dose was not tolerated. Dose was increased by up to 5 mg at intervals of 2 weeks until a maximum target dosage of 15 mg/d was reached at the beginning of week 5. Dose was not increased if the subject showed clinical improvement at a lower dose, defined as a 50% reduction in Massachusetts General Hospital Hair Pulling Scale (MGHHPS), or was intolerant of a further dosing increase. Dose was not increased after week 5; at any point, it could be decreased secondary to side effects.

Study groups in NCT00947154
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Open-label aripiprazolExperimentalAripiprazole dose of 5 mg/d, which could be reduced to 2 mg/d if the initial dose was not tolerated. Dose was increased by up to 5 mg at intervals of 2 weeks until a maximum target dosage of 15 mg/d was reached at the beginning of week 5. Dose was not increased if the subject showed clinical improvement at a lower dose, defined as a 50% reduction in Massachusetts General Hospital Hair Pulling Scale (MGHHPS), or was intolerant of a further dosing increase. Dose was not increased after week 5; at any point, it could be decreased secondary to side effects.
Receives: Drug: aripiprazole

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Mass General Hair Pulling Scale

    A brief, self-report instrument for assessing repetitive hairpulling. Seven individual items, rated for severity from 0 to 4, assess frequency and intensity of urges to pull, ability to control the urges, frequency of pulling, attempts to resist pulling, success in resisting, and associated distress. Statistical analyses indicate that the seven items form a homogenous scale for the measurement of severity in trichotillomania. Higher scores indicate greater severity of hair pulling. Total score can range from 0 to 28.

    Measured: Change from baseline to week 8

  2. Mass General Hair Pulling Scale, Actual Pulling Subscale

    Sum of scores for items 4, 5 and 6 from the Mass General Hair Pulling Scale (Frequency of Pulling, Attempts to Resist Pulling, Control Over Hair Pulling). Score can range from 0 to 12; higher scores indicate more severe hair pulling.

    Measured: change from baseline to end of week 8

Secondary outcomes (2)
  1. CGI-I Score of 1 or 2 (Very Much or Much Improved)

    CGI = Clinical Global Improvement 7-item scale, from very much worse to very much better.

    Measured: At week 8

  2. Clinical Global Impressions Improvement (CGI-I)

    The CGI-I is a clinician rated scale ranging from 0 (not assessed) to 7 (very much worse), with intermediate scores of 1 (very much improved), 2 (much improved), 3 (minimally improved), 4 (no change), 5 (minimally worse), 6 (much worse). The clinician is rating the overall change in the patient's clinical condition.

    Measured: At week 8

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted27 Jul 2009 (estimated)
  2. Study startJul 2009
  3. Primary completionJul 2010
  4. Study completionJul 2010

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
12 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00947154
Sponsor's protocol ID
SU-07172009-3320
Other IDs
eProtocol #15291
Status last verified
May 2015
First submitted
23 Jul 2009
Last updated
16 Jun 2015
Data monitoring committee
No

Publications

  • White MP, Koran LM. Open-label trial of aripiprazole in the treatment of trichotillomania. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2011 Aug;31(4):503-6. doi: 10.1097/JCP.0b013e318221b1ba.

    PubMed 21694623

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing aripiprazole in people with Trichotillomania, run by Stanford University at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 13 inclusion and 14 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 16 Jun 2015. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 16 Jun 2015). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Mass General Hair Pulling Scale (time frame: Change from baseline to week 8). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00947154, which also lists 1 linked publication.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 16 Jun 2015.

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