Inflammation clinical trials at UCLA
3 research studies open to eligible people
Aging and Reward System Response to Inflammation and Anxiety Study
open to eligible people ages 60-80
The purpose of this study is to use an experimental inflammatory challenge to examine whether older adults with symptoms of anxiety experience loss of pleasure or loss of motivation when they are exposed to inflammation. Loss of pleasure or loss of motivation will be evaluated using self-report questionnaires, computer tasks, and during a brain scan.
Los Angeles, California
Resources, Inspiration, Support and Empowerment (RISE) for Black Pregnant Women
open to eligible females ages 18-65
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) encompass a range of mental health disorders that occur during pregnancy and up to one year postpartum. Approximately 13% of women experience PMADs. This rate doubles for those with adverse perinatal outcomes (APO) and triples in Black women. Recent research points to racism as one significant source of these health disparities. Cultural adaptations to improve communication with providers decrease rates of depression in minority patients as well as improve adherence to treatment, insight and alliance. Discrimination stress and worries about experiencing medical consequences are thought to increase systemic inflammation, a mechanism known to drive mental and physical symptoms. Inflammation has been implicated in both PMADs and APO, suggesting a shared underlying etiology. Evidence from our work suggests that inflammation contributes to the pathophysiology of PMADs. The proposed pilot randomized control trial will allow the investigators to build on promising preliminary results and identify whether our culturally relevant mobile Health (mHealth) intervention is effective in improving outcomes among Black pregnant women randomized to the intervention compared to a control group. The culturally relevant modules include building communication and self-advocacy skills and provide a support network. The primary objective of this research is to provide guidance for clinical care of Black women during the perinatal period, with the goal to improve mental health and physical health outcomes. A secondary goal is to examine novel inflammatory signatures that change as a function of the intervention to reduce PMADs in this population. As inflammation may be diagnostic of PMADs, identification of its role may shed light of potential intervention targets and provide critical knowledge to improve women's long-term health. PMAD symptoms will be assessed prospectively in 150 Black pregnant women, half of whom will be randomized to receive the culturally relevant mHealth intervention. The investigators hypothesize that women in the intervention group will have reduced rates of PMADs and APOs, an increase in adherence to mental health treatment and will report increased self-advocacy skills, increased communication with providers, and reduced levels of discrimination related stress. Participants will also have improved biological risk indicators including lower circulating C-reactive protein and a transcription profile of differentially expressed inflammatory genes, marked by a decreased activity of inflammatory transcription factors from blood spots. Given the high burden of both PMADs and APOs among Black mothers and the numerous consequences on maternal and child outcomes, it is imperative that investigators develop and implement effective interventions, and test the biological mechanisms that might drive these effects. This work is interdisciplinary, building on a network of community advocates to implement a novel mHealth intervention informed by real world experiences designed to enhance self-advocacy, reduce stress and prevent adverse outcomes
Los Angeles, California
UCLA REST Study (REsearch on Sleep Techniques)
open to eligible people ages 18-20
Sleep disturbance has a range of negative effects on psychosocial and biological processes important for academic and social success as well as mental and physical health among adolescents and young adults. Limited, inconsistent, and poor quality sleep lead to anxiety, depressive feelings, loneliness, and fatigue over time. These symptoms, in turn, interfere with the ability to get a good night's rest. Sleep disruption can also upregulate inflammatory processes during the years of adolescence and young adulthood in ways that can create risk for the development of chronic health conditions (e.g., diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease) in later adulthood. Sleep, however, is also a modifiable health behavior, leading many institutions to embark upon efforts to improve the sleep of their students. The challenge is to identify programs and interventions that can simultaneously improve sleep, be delivered at scale, and be easily completed by students. UCLA has developed and validated a group-based mindfulness intervention, Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs), that has demonstrated beneficial effects on sleep in adults and may offer a promising, scalable approach for reducing sleep disturbance and improving associated psychological and biological outcomes in college students. However, this approach requires validation in this population relative to sleep education programs, which increasingly dominate the college landscape. To address this important public health problem, the investigators propose to conduct a single site, two-arm, parallel group randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the validated, group-based, six-week MAPs intervention vs. sleep education, an active time and attention matched control condition, for first year undergraduate students who report poor sleep at this critical transition year. The investigators are aiming to enroll approximately 240 participants. Participants will complete questionnaires, provide blood samples for immune analysis and will be provided with wrist actigraphs to wear for 7 days, in order to collect objective measurements of sleep at pre- and post-intervention visits, and at a 3-month follow-up visit. Additional follow-up assessments will take place at 6-month, and 12-month post-intervention to evaluate persistence of effects.
Los Angeles, California
Our lead scientists for Inflammation research studies include Andrew Fuligni, Ph.D. Chloe C Boyle, PHD.
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