View clinical trials related to Fear.
Filter by:Background: - Researchers want to see if people with alcohol dependence have more trouble learning to feel calm, or learn to fear things more easily, than non-alcoholics and to study how early life stress (ELS) affects these things. Objective: - To see if people with alcohol dependence and/or ELS have a harder time learning to feel calm than people without these conditions. Eligibility: - Adults age 21 65 with diagnosed alcohol dependence, with/without ELS. - Healthy volunteers age 21 65 with/without ELS. Design: - All participants will be screened with medical history and physical exam. They will have blood and urine tests, and a psychological assessment. - Participants with alcohol dependence will: - be at the NIH Clinical Center for 4 weeks. Then they will have weekly telephone calls and 3 in-person visits over 3 months. - follow the NIH alcohol treatment program during the study. They cannot take psychiatric medications. - rate their alcohol craving, depression, and anxiety throughout the study. - have fear conditioning and extinction sessions that use noise and mild electric shock. Some take place during a functional MRI (fMRI) scan. Participants will lie in a machine that takes images, while they perform tasks. - listen to recordings that describe stressful events. They will rate their feelings and have blood drawn through an intravenous (IV) line. - have their hormone response to stress tested. They will take a pill and get a hormone via an IV, then have blood drawn. - Healthy volunteers will: - have 2 inpatient stays, each lasting a few days. They will answer questions about how they feel. - have fear conditioning and extinction sessions, including fMRI. - have blood drawn several times.