Functional neuroimaging of fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibition in posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized clinical trial.

ABSTRACT: The endocannabinoid ligand anandamide (AEA) plays a role in fear extinction, the conceptual foundation of the gold standard treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), exposure-based psychotherapy. Converging evidence from animal models and non-clinical human studies highlights the potential to enhance fear extinction pharmacologically by inhibiting the AEA catabolic enzyme, fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). However, in our randomized clinical trial (n = 100), a FAAH inhibitor did no better than placebo at enhancing the response to exposure-based therapy in PTSD. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neurobiological effects of FAAH inhibitor treatment on resting-state functional connectivity and the neural correlates of emotional processing (n = 76

SUBMITTER: Tansey R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12923879 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature