View clinical trials related to Disease.
Filter by:To determine the safety and efficacy of Amniotic and Umbilical Cord Tissue for the treatment of the following condition categories: Orthopedic, Neurologic, Urologic, Autoimmune, Renal, Cardiac and Pulmonary Conditions. The hypotheses are that the treatments are not only extremely safe, but also statistically beneficial for all conditions. Outcomes will be determined by numerous valid outcome instruments that compile general quality of life information along with condition-specific information as well.
Major depressive disorder is a common mental disorder and the leading cause of disability worldwide. According to the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatment, early improvement following an antidepressant treatment is correlated with response and remission. Escalation of an antidepressant dose after 2 weeks, as opposed to 4 to 8 weeks, is proposed to favor early improvement. However, this has never been tested systematically in a controlled study involving major depressive disorder patients that are non-responders to their antidepressant treatment.
Depressive disorder is known as being accompanied with the activation of immune system which could lead to a series of changes including the neuron apoptosis, synapses transmission inhibition and emotional symptoms. The activation of protein kinase C (PKC) can reverse the immune/inflammatory process and restore the neuroplasticity and neurotransmitters transmission. Based on our finding that patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed a significantly lower gene expression of PRKCB1, while the PKC activation mediated by PRKCB1, we hypothesize that PRKCB1 contribute to the development of MDD and treatment response by its specific expression in brain, regulating ERBB, Chemokine signaling pathways and PKC activation during the neuroinflammatory process. In the present study, we aim to evaluate and verify the regulation effect of PRKCB1 on the neuroimmune and inflammatory mechanism in depressive disorder by a serious of studies focus on PRKCB1 gene expression modulating process and different downstream biomarkers which associated with PRKCB1 effect, combined with the specified treatment (plus omega-3 poly unsaturated fat acids). This study may provide scientific evidences for using neuroinflammatory biomarkers to diagnose MDD, as well as personalized treatment.
The study examines whether people primarily want to confirm their prior attitudes in health-related information search, in an online environment using social tags for navigation. Participants were looking for information on the treatment of depression with antidepressants and psychotherapy. They were randomly assigned to two groups with either high or low credibility of the community who provides social tags, and two groups where participants' confidence in prior attitudes was heightened or lowered, and to two groups where either antidepressant tags were more popular or psychotherapy was more popular. The investigators measured attitude change toward the treatments and also navigation behavior.
Assisted animal therapy (AAT) is getting more and more used worldwide, in such areas as gerontology, psychiatry, or oncology. It is a complementary therapy, and benefits for patients are various, including decrease of anxiety. In ICU, some case reports exist, but no study has ever been made in order to prove its benefits, not even its feasibility. In ReAnimal, the investigator aims to compare a group of patients receiving assisted animal therapy, versus a group of patients not receiving it. Primary objective will be the evolution of anxiety scores between the 2 groups of patients. Secondary objectives will be the comparison of mood scores, post traumatic stress syndrome scores, pain scores, and physiologic parameters such as blood pressure, cardiac frequency. The investigating team will also compare multi drug resistant bacteria incidence between the 2 groups. In the assisted animal therapy group, patients will also be asked to answer a satisfaction questionnaire.
Obesity and diabetes are a significant global burden and there is an immediate need for novel treatments and management strategies. Our laboratory determined that avocado derived 17 carbon polyhydroxylated fatty alcohols (PFAs) are inhibitors of fatty acid oxidation (FAO) that impart minimal toxicity in mice. FAO is altered in numerous disease states including obesity and diabetes. In these chronic diseases, excessive FAO in muscle and liver mitochondria cause metabolic overload and inefficiency which drives obesity-associated glucose intolerance and insulin insensitivity. The increased FAO that occurs in obese and diabetic individuals depletes several substrates and intermediates of the Krebs cycle, making them less efficient at using oxidative phosphorylation for energy, which can ultimately lead to glucose insensitivity and weight gain. For these reasons, inhibition of FAO is now an established therapeutic approach for the treatment of type II diabetes as reducing FAO: i) improves cellular metabolism to shift towards the more thermogenic oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis, and ii) reduces hyperglycemia via inhibiting liver gluconeogenesis while improving glucose homeostasis. In collaboration with an industry partner, Advanced Orthomolecular Research (AOR; Calgary, AB), the investigators have developed a supplement containing a blend of 17-carbon PFAs found inside a commercially available food grade avocado powder. The primary objective of this clinical trial is to determine if the avocado derived supplement is safe for oral consumption compared to a placebo-controlled group.
The purpose of this study is to determine a threshold value of fetal anogenital distance in 2D ultrasound to differentiate male fetuses from female fetuses, starting 18 weeks of gestation and until the due date. The study also evaluates the feasibility of the measure and its interobserver variability.
Suvorexant (trade name Belsomra) is an orexin receptor antagonist that has TGA approval for the treatment of insomnia, characterised by difficulties with sleep onset and/or sleep maintenance. It may also have a role in addictions as the orexins play a critical role in drug addiction and reward-related behaviours. Orexins appear to be involved in both alcohol withdrawal and in alcohol seeking triggered by external cues (eg contexts or stressors) through both OX1 and OX2 receptor signalling. Chief investigator, Professor Lawrence was the first to demonstrate a role for endogenous orexin signaling in alcohol-seeking. Alcohol is known to effect the sleep of healthy and alcohol dependent individuals with effects on daytime sleepiness, physiological functions during sleep, and the development of sleep disorders. There are various estimates of the co-occurrence of insomnia and alcohol use disorder ranging from 36-72%. In alcohol dependent individuals sleep is disturbed both while drinking and for months of abstinence and abstinent sleep disturbance is predictive of relapse. This proposal aims to evaluate the use of suvorexant as a safe and effective pharmacotherapy to treat sleep disorders in alcohol dependent patients undergoing acute alcohol withdrawal and thereafter for six months. The study will also examine the effectiveness of suvorexant in reducing craving for alcohol and promoting duration of abstinence. This will be the first double blind controlled trial of suvorexant in the management of the alcohol withdrawal syndrome and maintenance of abstinence post withdrawal.
The investigators previously showed that deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) reduces symptoms in patients with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although most patients now receive bilateral stimulation, multiple studies suggest that stimulation of the left BNST might be equally effective. In this study, the investigators will evaluate the effect of unilateral stimulation in OCD patients who currently receive bilateral BNST stimulation to treat their symptoms. We hypothesize that unilateral stimulation of the left BNST will reduce anxious and depressive symptoms, compared to no stimulation. The study entails a double-blinded, randomized cross-over design during which every patient undergoes four stimulation conditions: stimulation of the left, right or bilateral BNST, or no stimulation. During every condition, which takes about fifteen minutes, the patient is exposed to an individually determined stimulus that normally elicits OCD-related symptoms. The patients are then asked to fill out a short questionnaire to evaluate the severity of their symptoms during the four conditions. At the end of the cross-over phase, the stimulation parameters of each patient are restored.
To explore reliable neuroimaging biomarkers for anxiety disorder and OCD,and whether there are shared imaging biomarkers between different subtypes of anxiety disorder and OCD, the investigators included30 drug-naive general anxiety disorder (GAD),30 drug-naïve panic disorder(PD),30 drug-naïve social anxiety disorder,30 drug-naive.obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and 30 healthy controls by using a combination of cross-section and longitudinal study designs, including a longitudinal study in patients with anxiety disorder and OCD with 4 weeks of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) paroxetine treatment. The investigators will also evaluate the severity of symptom, social function, cognitive function and treatment response.