Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32722659›Full record

Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020

Cognitive and emotional empathy after stimulation of brain mineralocorticoid and NMDA receptors in patients with major depression and healthy controls.

Jan Nowacki, Katja Wingenfeld, Michael Kaczmarczyk, Woo Ri Chae, Ikram Abu-Tir, Christian Eric Deuter, Dominique Piber, Julian Hellmann-Regen, Christian Otte

Registry-linked trialOpen access · hybridAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03062150 (Effects of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Stimulation on Cognitive Bias and Social Cognition in Patients With Major Depression and Healthy Controls), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 30% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03062150 nacompletednot on this map

Effects of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Stimulation on Cognitive Bias and Social Cognition in Patients With Major Depression and Healthy Controls: What's the Role of NMDA Receptors?

TypeinterventionalSponsorCharite University, Berlin, GermanyRan2016 to 2019Enrolled232ConditionsMajor DepressionArmsPlacebo, Fludrocortisone, D-Cycloserine
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Impact of social exclusion on empathy in women with borderline personality disorder.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023
    Trial
  4. Article
  5. Insula uses overlapping codes for emotion in self and others.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jan NowackiDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.
Katja WingenfeldDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7457-0370
Michael KaczmarczykDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2366-5972
Woo Ri ChaeDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.
Ikram Abu-TirDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.
Christian Eric DeuterDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.
Dominique PiberDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.
Julian Hellmann-RegenDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0411-9204
Christian OtteDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203, Berlin, Germany. christian.otte@charite.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4051-997X
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) are predominantly expressed in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Both brain areas are associated with social cognition, which includes cognitive empathy (ability to understand others' emotions) and emotional empathy (ability to empathize with another person). MR stimulation improves memory and executive functioning in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls, and leads to glutamate-mediated N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) signaling. We examined whether the beneficial effects of MR stimulation can be extended to social cognition (empathy), and whether DCS would have additional beneficial effects. In this double-blind placebo-controlled single-dose study, we randomized 116 unmedicated MDD patients (mean age 34 years, 78% women) and 116 age-, sex-, and education years-matched healthy controls to four conditions: MR stimulation (fludrocortisone (0.4 mg) + placebo), NMDA-R stimulation (placebo + D-cycloserine (250 mg)), MR and NMDA-R stimulation (both drugs), or placebo. Cognitive and emotional empathy were assessed by the Multifaceted Empathy Test. The study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03062150). MR stimulation increased cognitive empathy across groups, whereas NMDA-R stimulation decreased cognitive empathy in MDD patients only. Independent of receptor stimulation, cognitive empathy did not differ between groups. Emotional empathy was not affected by MR or NMDA-R stimulation. However, MDD patients showed decreased emotional empathy compared with controls but, according to exploratory analyses, only for positive emotions. We conclude that MR stimulation has beneficial effects on cognitive empathy in MDD patients and healthy controls, whereas NMDA-R stimulation decreased cognitive empathy in MDD patients. It appears that MR rather than NMDA-R are potential treatment targets to modulate cognitive empathy in MDD.

Indexed as

Major Depressive DisorderAdultBrainCognitionDepressionDouble-Blind MethodEmotionsEmpathyFemaleHumansMaleMineralocorticoidsReceptors, MineralocorticoidReceptors, N-Methyl-D-AspartateMineralocorticoidsReceptors, MineralocorticoidReceptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate

Identifiers

PMID32722659
PMCPMC7785026
OpenAlexW3044520227

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.