View clinical trials related to Severe Depression.
Filter by:People with a severe mental illness (SMI) have an increased risk for premature mortality, predominantly due somatic health conditions. Evidence indicates that prevention and improved treatment of somatic conditions in patients with SMI could reduce this excess mortality. This paper reports a protocol designed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a coordinated co-produced care programme (SOFIA model) in the general practice setting to reduce mortality and improve quality of life in patients with severe mental illness. The primary outcomes are description of study feasibility (recruitment and retention) and acceptability. The SOFIA trial is designed as cluster randomized controlled trial targeting general practices in two regions in Denmark. 12 practices will each recruit 15 community-dwelling patients aged 18 and older with severe mental illness (SMI). Practices will be randomized in a ratio 2:1 to deliver a coordinated care program or care-as-usual during a 6 month period. An online randomized algorithm is used to perform randomization. The coordinated care program comprises enhanced educational training of general practitioners and their clinical staff, and prolonged consultations focusing on individual needs and preferences of the patient with SMI. Assessments are administered at baseline, and at end of study period. If delivery of the intervention in the general practice setting proves feasible, a future definitive trial to determine the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing mortality and improving quality of life in patients with SMI can take place.
Recent research demonstrates that the composition of the gut microbiome is a master regulator of key neurophysiological processes that are affected in depression. Indeed, contemporary studies showed that faecal microbiota is altered in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Furthermore, it has also been shown that supplementation of probiotics ameliorated depressive symptoms in unmedicated patients with mild to moderate depression. However, no study has yet explored the efficacy of a probiotic-based therapy in patients with severe MDD in addition to a standard antidepressant treatment. As dietary and lifestyle interventions may be a desirable, effective, pragmatical and non-stigmatizing prevention and adjuvant therapy (in addition to antidepressant treatment) in depression, this project is aimed at investigating for the first time if probiotic supplementation compared to a placebo treatment improves the effect of standard antidepressant medication on depressive symptoms (i.e. better and faster remission) in patients with severe MDD. Furthermore, this study will further test if probiotic supplementation modulates immune signalling and inflammatory processes (macrophage migration inhibitory factor and interleukin 1 beta), hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis responses (saliva cortisol), neurogenesis (brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression), the release of appetite-regulating hormones (leptin and ghrelin), the composition of gut microbiota (in particular levels of Enterobacteriaceae, Alistipes and Faecalibacterium) and brain perfusion, structure and activation and if these changes are associated with the probiotic-induced effect on depressive symptoms.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a non-pharmacological treatment used in resistant depression whose effectiveness has been demonstrated. However, the brain mechanisms underlying this therapeutic effect remain unclear. Many animal studies show a neurotrophic action of ECT on the hippocampus: increased neurogenesis, synaptogenesis, proliferation of glial cells. In addition, functional imaging of "resting state" type have shown, among depressed patients after ECT, increased functional connectivity . These results were reinforced by the recent work of Perrin (2012). In view of this a priori contradictory, it seems appropriate to continue research neuroanatomical correlates subtending neurofunctional processes responsible at the same time improving the clinical depressive. The investigators suggest using an original technique never used in this type of population: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or multimodal structural-functional. This method will allow us to study the impact of ECT on brain structures involved in major depressive disorder: hippocampus.
In this proof of concept study, the investigators plan to administer iv ketamine interleaved with ECT days. Patients with treatment resistant depression who are deemed to be eligible for ECT treatment will randomly be assigned to either ketamine or active placebo.