Effects of Low Dose Aspirin in Bipolar Disorder (The A-Bipolar RCT)

Sponsor
Lars Vedel Kessing (Other)
Overall Status
Recruiting
CT.gov ID
NCT05035316
Collaborator
(none)
250
1
2
22
11.3

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Despite currently available treatment, a large proportion of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) suffer from affective symptoms, impaired psychosocial and cognitive function. Inflammation seems to be involved in the pathogenesis of BD and preliminary data suggest that low-dose Aspirin may have beneficial effects. The objective of this RCT is to investigate whether add on of low dose aspirin versus placebo add on to standard drug treatment improves mood stabilisation and other critical patient outcomes in patients with BD and whether its principal effects are antimanic, antidepressant or prophylactic against relapse.

randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial will investigate whether augmentation with low dose Aspirin to standard drug treatment improve mood stabilization.

Condition or Disease Intervention/Treatment Phase
Phase 2

Detailed Description

BD is increasingly conceived as a multisystem disorder with pathophysiologic abnormalities involving inflammation, oxidative stress imbalance, neurotrophic deficiencies and telomere shortening. Specifically, inflammation has been confirmed to be involved in the pathogenesis of BD. Emerging yet compelling data converge to suggest that aspirin may protect against the onset and deterioration in BD. Nevertheless, a pragmatic large scale RCT is needed to for a conclusive risk-benefit analysis of aspirin and to clarify its therapeutic role at the different clinical stages of BD.The investigators propose to include smartphone-based self-assessment of mood as the primary outcome measure in the RCT. Thus, during the last ten years, the investigators have developed and tested a unique smartphone-based system, the Monsenso system, for monitoring, diagnosing and treating BD.

The trial is designed as a two arm, parallel randomized trial with randomisation 1:1 to add on of low dose aspirin (Hjertemagnyl 150 mg/day) versus add-on of placebo to current treatment and with stratification according to age (< 30 years) and gender. The trial is planned and will be conducted in concordance with the CONSORT 2010 Explanation and Elaboration: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials. Patients will be included from The Copenhagen Affective Disorder Clinic, which is a mood disorder clinic providing treatment service for patients with newly diagnosed/first episode BD from the entire Capital Region of Denmark covering a catchment area of 1.6 million people and all psychiatric centres in the region. The Clinic receives more than 300 patients with newly diagnosed BD each year.

Hypotheses:

Primary: Add on low dose aspirin versus placebo to standard drug treatment improves mood stabilisation.

Secondary: Effects on mood stabilisation is higher in patients with increased inflammatory marker levels at inclusion

Tertiary: Low dose aspirin improves cognition.

Study Design

Study Type:
Interventional
Anticipated Enrollment :
250 participants
Allocation:
Randomized
Intervention Model:
Parallel Assignment
Intervention Model Description:
Double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled trialDouble-blinded randomized placebo-controlled trial
Masking:
Quadruple (Participant, Care Provider, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking Description:
Participants, researchers and clinicians will be masked for the intervention
Primary Purpose:
Treatment
Official Title:
Effects of Low Dose Aspirin in Bipolar Disorder (The A-Bipolar RCT)
Actual Study Start Date :
Mar 1, 2022
Anticipated Primary Completion Date :
Jan 1, 2024
Anticipated Study Completion Date :
Jan 1, 2024

Arms and Interventions

Arm Intervention/Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Placebo

125 BD participants will receive placebo. Patients, clinicians and researchers will be blinded for the intervention

Drug: Calcium
Oral tablet: calcium, 1 tablet/day

Active Comparator: Active

125 BD participants will receive active treatment. Patients, clinicians and researchers will be blinded for the intervention

Drug: acetylsalicylic acid
Oral tablet: acetylsalicylic acid,150 mg, 1 tablet/day
Other Names:
  • Aspirin
  • Outcome Measures

    Primary Outcome Measures

    1. Daily self-reported mood instability [6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Daily self-reported mood instability collected via the Monsenso system

    Secondary Outcome Measures

    1. Depressive symptoms [6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Depressive symptoms assessed by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-6 items (min. value = 0; max. value = 22, with higher values reflecting more depressive symptoms)

    2. Manic symptoms [6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Manic symptoms assessed by the Young Mania Rating Scale (min. value = 0; max. value = 60, with higher values reflecting more manic symptoms)

    3. General functioning [6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      General functioning assessed by the Functional Assessment Short Test, a 24-item interviewer-administered interview concerning autonomy, occupational functioning, cognitive functioning, financial issues, interpersonal relationships and leisure time (min. value = 0; max. value = 72, with higher values reflecting poorer function)

    4. Self-rated quality of life [Changes between baseline levels, 3 and 6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Self-rated quality of life assessed by completion of the WHO Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire. (Min. value = 9; max. value = 45, with higher values reflecting better quality of life)

    5. Self-rated perceived stress level [Changes between baseline levels, 3 and 6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Self-rated stress level assessed by completion of Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale, a 10-item questionnaire. (Min. value = 0; max. value = 40, with higher values reflecting increased stress level

    6. Self-rated sleep quality [Changes between baseline levels, 3 and 6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Self-rated sleep quality assessed by completion of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. This questionnaire does not use a predefined scale.

    Other Outcome Measures

    1. Automatically smartphone-generated data [6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Automatically smartphone-generated data on physical activity, social activity and voice features.

    2. Neuropsychological testing [6 months (12 months for a subgroup of participants)]

      Neuropsychological testing according to our newly developed Internet-based Cognition Assessment Tool (ICAT), which is self-administered by patients in their home setting.

    Eligibility Criteria

    Criteria

    Ages Eligible for Study:
    18 Years to 65 Years
    Sexes Eligible for Study:
    All
    Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
    No
    Inclusion Criteria:
    • Bipolar disorder (type 1 or 2), with diagnoses confirmed by SCAN interview.

    • Age 18-65 years

    • Speaks and writes Danish at a level equal to mother tongue

    • Habile (i.e. able to give informed consent)

    Exclusion Criteria:
    • Chronic kidney disease with GFR 0-10 ml/min

    • Severe cardiac insufficiency (NYHA IIIb-IV)

    • History of gastric ulcers, gastro-intestinal bleeding or other pathological bleeding tendency (thrombocytopenia, hemophilia, vitamin K deficiency)

    • Asthma or other allergic symptoms developed after intake of salicylates, paracetamol or other NSAID or any of the excipients

    • Patients already on aspirin or other NSAID, anticoagulants or SSRIs.

    • For fertile females:

    • Reluctance to use effective contraception during enrollment, including a safety period of one week following last medication day/trial completion

    • Pregnancy; pregnancy ruled out by HCG test before enrollment

    • Breastfeeding

    • Planned major surgery during trial period. If a subject has scheduled major surgery (i.e. with bleeding risk), enrollment will be postponed until this is completed

    Contacts and Locations

    Locations

    Site City State Country Postal Code
    1 Psychiatric Center Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark 2100

    Sponsors and Collaborators

    • Lars Vedel Kessing

    Investigators

    None specified.

    Study Documents (Full-Text)

    None provided.

    More Information

    Publications

    None provided.
    Responsible Party:
    Lars Vedel Kessing, Professor, MD, DMSc., Mental Health Services in the Capital Region, Denmark
    ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
    NCT05035316
    Other Study ID Numbers:
    • H-21014515
    • 2021-000862-14
    First Posted:
    Sep 5, 2021
    Last Update Posted:
    Apr 8, 2022
    Last Verified:
    Apr 1, 2022
    Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
    No
    Plan to Share IPD:
    No
    Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:
    No
    Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:
    No
    Additional relevant MeSH terms:

    Study Results

    No Results Posted as of Apr 8, 2022