Using a brief CO2 breathing test to spot who may not improve with exposure therapy
1/2: CO2 Reactivity as a Biomarker of Non-response to Exposure-based Therapy
This project will see if a short, safe CO2 breathing challenge can help tell which adults with anxiety-related problems might not get better from exposure therapy.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Texas at Austin NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Austin, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11287889 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would do a short, safe CO2 breathing challenge before starting treatment and then receive open, state-of-the-art exposure-based therapy for your anxiety or related condition. The team will follow about 600 adults over the course of treatment to track who improves and who does not. Researchers will combine the CO2 test result with other measures to build a model that aims to identify likely non-responders. The effort builds on lab and animal work linking CO2 reactivity to brain systems involved in fear learning.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Adults (21 years and older) with one or more fear- or anxiety-related disorders would be the intended participants for this project.
Not a fit: People without anxiety- or fear-related disorders, or those unable to travel to the study site, would not be appropriate candidates and would not directly benefit from this research.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the test could help people and clinicians choose treatments more likely to work and avoid time spent on therapies that are less likely to help.
How similar studies have performed: Animal studies and preliminary human work support the link between CO2 reactivity and fear-extinction problems, but a large clinical validation like this is new.
Where this research is happening
Austin, United States
- University of Texas at Austin — Austin, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Smits, Jasper — University of Texas at Austin
- Study coordinator: Smits, Jasper
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.