Augmentation of Psychotherapy With D-Cycloserine in Agoraphobia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2014-05-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Since decades, D-Cycloserine (DCS, drug class: Oxazolidinone) is proven to be an effective
antibiotic agent in the treatment of tuberculosis. Furthermore it takes action in the central
nervous system as an partial agonist on NMDA receptors. Because of glutamate mediated
neuronal long-term potentiation in long-term memory DCS has an augmenting effect on emotional
learning, as it occurs in exposure therapy of anxiety disorders. In this context we use DCS
in addition to exposure therapy as a part of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in patients
suffering from agoraphobia with or without panic disorder. Thereby DCS is applicated oral as
a capsule of 50mg, on three consecutive therapy sessions.