Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2022
Randomized controlled experimental study of hydrocortisone and D-cycloserine effects on fear extinction in PTSD.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of the pharmacological modulation of autobiographical memory specificity.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Enhancing the Efficacy of Exposure Therapy: Translation of Pharmacological Augmentation of Fear Extinction.Annual review of clinical psychology · 2026Review
- Sweetening fear exposure: study protocol for a multi-day, randomized controlled trial to study effects of glucose in exposure sessions of participants with public speaking anxiety.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Neurobiological and Existential Profiles in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Role of Serotonin, Cortisol, Noradrenaline, and IL-12 Across Chronicity and Age.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Chronic postoperative pain induces contextual fear extinction dysfunction through hippocampal NMDAR/BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway in mice.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Stress-induced changes in the molecular processes underlying fear memories: implications for PTSD and relevant animal models.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- PACAP associated with precise PTSD and fear extinction response in women.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Cortisol Imbalance and Fear Learning in PTSD: Therapeutic Approaches to Control Abnormal Fear Responses.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Review
- Exogenous glucocorticoids to improve extinction learning for post-traumatic stress disorder patients with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis dysregulation: a study protocol description.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Article
- Ketamine in neuropsychiatric disorders: an update.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Cross species review of the physiological role of D-serine in translationally relevant behaviors.Amino acids · 2023Review
- Stress, associative learning, and decision-making.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2023Review
- Neuropharmacological Modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate, Noradrenaline and Endocannabinoid Receptors in Fear Extinction Learning: Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Alleviating anxiety and taming trauma: Novel pharmacotherapeutics for anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder.Neuropharmacology · 2023Review
- Aerobic exercise in the treatment of PTSD: An examination of preclinical and clinical laboratory findings, potential mechanisms, clinical implications, and future directions.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2023Review
- Aerobic exercise after extinction learning reduces return of fear and enhances memory of items encoded during extinction learning.Mental health and physical activity · 2023Article
- How Different Factors in Combination Change Fear Extinction Learning: The Case of Sex and Stress Hormones.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- The influence of sleep on fear extinction in trauma-related disorders.Neurobiology of stress · 2023Article
- Antibiotics and mental health: The good, the bad and the ugly.Journal of internal medicine · 2022Review
- Impact of hormonal contraceptives on sex differences in fear conditioning and fear extinction in PTSD.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Fear extinction underlies prolonged exposure, one of the most well-studied treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There has been increased interest in exploring pharmacological agents to enhance fear extinction learning in humans and their potential as adjuncts to PE. The objective of such adjuncts is to augment the clinical impact of PE on the durability and magnitude of symptom reduction. In this study, we examined whether hydrocortisone (HC), a corticosteroid, and D-Cycloserine (DCS), an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor partial agonist, enhance fear extinction learning and consolidation in individuals with PTSD. In a double-blind placebo-controlled 3-group experimental design, 90 individuals with full or subsyndromal PTSD underwent fear conditioning with stimuli that were paired (CS+) or unpaired (CS-) with shock. Extinction learning occurred 72 h later and extinction retention was tested one week after extinction. HC 25 mg, DCS 50 mg or placebo was administered one hour prior to extinction learning. During extinction learning, the DCS and HC groups showed a reduced differential CS+/CS- skin conductance response (SCR) compared to placebo (b = -0.19, CI = -0.01 to -37, p = 0.042 and b = -0.25, CI = -08 to -0.43, p = 0.005, respectively). A nonsignificant trend for a lower differential CS+/CS- SCR in the DCS group, compared to placebo, (b = -0.25, CI = 0.04 to -0.55, p = 0.089) was observed at retention testing, one week later. A single dose of HC and DCS facilitated fear extinction learning in participants with PTSD symptoms. While clinical implications have yet to be determined, our findings suggest that glucocorticoids and NMDA agonists hold promise for facilitating extinction learning in PTSD.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.