Shifting Brain Excitation-Inhibition Balance in Autism Spectrum Disorder

• Status: Unknown status
• Trial end date: 2019-04-27
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Male

Summary

This study investigates brain response to single acute dose of cannabidiol, cannabidivarin, and placebo in healthy men with and without autism spectrum disorder

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: King's College London
• Treatments: Cannabidiol

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• men

• pass diagnostic threshold for ASD on the ADI-R (if informant is available)

• currently symptomatic on ADOS

• age 18-50 years

• can give informed consent

• IQ>70 (on a standard instrument such as WASI)

• medication-free in the month preceding participation (but regular medication with drug, which does not affect glutamate or GABA directly may be permitted)

• willing to provide urine samples to screen for use of illicit substances prior to each scan

Exclusion Criteria:

• IQ<70

• history of psychosis, co-morbid major mental illness, significant physical illness (heart disease, high blood pressure, seizures)

• habitual substance misuse (including alcohol)

• known allergy to cannabis

• ASD caused by a known genetic syndrome e.g. Fragile X or 22q11 deletion syndrome,

• past/present treatment for epilepsy

• Women will be excluded from this pilot study to reduce heterogeneity in a small sample; avoid the issues around exposing women of reproductive age to a drug; and because pregnancy is a routine exclusion criteria for research MRI. Lastly, ASD is more common in men.