View clinical trials related to Major Depression.
Filter by:The proposed Silvio O. Conte Center for Neuroscience of Depression will focus on understanding the neurobiological mechanism of depression. A total of 5 projects are proposed. The center is focused on a single hypothesis. The first project examines localization of lesions, structural changes in critical regions subserving the circuit, alterations in the white matter tracts relevant to the circuit and changes in glutamate. The second project uses post mortem cell counting and cellular localization in serotonin receptors and assessment of the type of cell loss in the orbitofrontal cortex. The third project uses cognitive paradigms and functional MRI to probe the circuit and the role of brain lesions and serotonin on the functioning of this circuit. The fourth project uses transgenic and knockout mice to examine to role of norepinephrine and serotonin as it relates to the circuit. The final project is designed to assess in these transgenic mice using multielectrode array of single neuron recordings of the firing pattern of the circuit neurons in various states and tasks and the role of monoamines in modulating this circuit.
Late-life depression (LLD) and cognitive impairment (CI) are significant public health problems among older adults, and their co-occurrence markedly increases disease burden and dementia risk. This highlights the importance of identifying and treating CI in LDD; however, current lack of reliable prognostic information from clinical, neuroimaging, and genetic data impedes research on targeted prevention and treatment. Two critical ways to close current knowledge gaps in predicting cognitive diagnostic outcomes of LLD involve: 1) increasing the number of diagnostic cases available to existing studies, and 2) using those studies to identify clinical, imaging, and genetic predictors that will improve future diagnosis. We intend to do both in the current proposal. We plan to study the following SPECIFIC AIMS: Aim 1: Identify baseline clinical-behavioral predictors of cognitive diagnostic outcomes in LLD. Working hypothesis: During acute LLD, CN will be associated with more frequent EOD and higher negative life stress than PCI and AD; PCI will be associated with EOD and higher frailty than CN and AD; AD will be associated with LOD, greater appetite loss, lower anxiety, and greater memory impairment than CN and PCI. Aim 2: Use multimodal neuroimaging at baseline to identify patterns associated with cognitive diagnostic outcomes in individuals with LLD. Working Hypothesis: CN will be associated with greater white matter integrity compared with PCI and AD; PCI will be associated with lower white matter integrity and network abnormalities in anterior cingulate cortex compared with CN; AD will be associated with lower hippocampal volume compared with CN and PCI. Aim 3: (exploratory): Explore interrelationships among candidate genes, cognitive diagnostic outcomes, and proposed phenotypic components relevant to LLD. Exploratory Hypotheses: 1) COMT val158met polymorphism will be associated with CN; 2) 5-HTTPRL and APOE ε2 polymorphisms will be associated with frailty; 3) genetic variation (SNPs) in TPH2 and AGTR1 will be associated with risk factors of AD: LOD, episodic memory, hippocampal volume, and appetite loss.
The purpose of the study is to see if galantamine HBr (Razadyne) is safe and can help treat problems with thinking and memory caused by electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
This is a pilot study. The purpose of this study is to determine whether adding 4 months of behavioral therapy to primary care physician medication treatment(relative to medication treatment alone) improves outcomes for persistently depressed primary care patients.
The purpose of this study is to find out what parts of the brain have increased or decreased activity when people are depressed and how antidepressant medicine changes this activity in depressed patients. The genetic samples collected are to look at variation in a gene (serotonin transporter gene), which affects the functioning of the chemical serotonin in the brain
Background: Although major depression and chronic headache are strongly associated, there is insufficient evidence on the use of antidepressants for this specific comorbidity. This trial aimed to investigate the efficiency and tolerability of duloxetine for this indication. Methods: Thirty outpatients of our clinic, with DSM-IV major depression and concurrent primary chronic headache (chronic migraine, chronic tension-type headache or both), 18-55 years, were recruited from April 2006 to March 2007, if they scored >21 on the Montgomery-Äsberg Depression Scale (MADRS) and had no other significant clinical condition. Subjects received duloxetine 60 mg/day for 8 weeks. MADRS scores and a visual analog pain scale (VAS) were the co-primary outcome measures. WHO quality of life scale (WHOQoL BREF) scores and headache days/week were secondary outcome measures.Conclusion: In this preliminary open trial, duloxetine 60 mg/day was effective, fast acting and well tolerated for the treatment of comorbid major depression and chronic headache.
In this pilot study, the PI proposes to include 20 African American participants with Fibromyalgia to explore the effect of r TMS on pain and depressive symptoms.
This multicenter study aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of cimicoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor, in combination with sertraline compared to sertraline combined with placebo in patients with major depression. This clinical study is based on the assumption that adjunctive treatment of major depression with a COX-2 inhibitor may be beneficial.
Major depression, chronic depression and bipolar depression are complex and difficult disorders to treat. They are often associated with residual symptoms with significant functional impairment. Yoga has been shown to be beneficial in treating depressive symptoms but without the added risks associated with medication use and has the advantage of high consumer appeal (with likelihood of good compliance). However, it has only been tested in unipolar depression, thus far. Yoga if shown to be effective (as an adjunctive to pharmacotherapy) in improving residual symptoms and decreasing risk of relapse, would be of significant long-term benefit to patients not only with major and chronic depression, but also for those with bipolar disorder. The aim of the study is to determine the safety and effectiveness of Yoga as an augmentation treatment to pharmacotherapy and in comparison to psychoeducation, in improving residual symptoms of depression over 16 weeks and in prevention of relapse/recurrence of mood episodes over 1 year, in subjects with unipolar and bipolar disorders.
The project will investigate the use of a novel technique, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia and patients with depression. tDCS involves the application of an extremely weak continuous electrical current to the brain through the placement of anode and a cathode on the scalp. The electrical current is generally completely imperceptible after initial period of tingling which takes about 30 seconds. Stimulation under the anode appears to increase brain activity where as stimulation under the cathode has the opposite effect. This research plan involves two clinical trials: 1. A study using tDCS to treat both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as lack of motivation and energy appear to arise due to a lack of activity in frontal brain areas. Positive symptoms such as hallucinations and confused thoughts may arise through over activity of brain areas more on the side and towards the back of the brain called the temporal cortex. We plan to apply tDCS such that it can simultaneously increased activity in these frontal brain areas and reduce activity over temporal cortex. We will compare active stimulation to a placebo condition which involves turning the stimulator off after 30 seconds. The capacity to target multiple symptom clusters is unique with this type of brain stimulation. 2. The study using tDCS in treatment resistant depression builds on a work with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS techniques in depression seem to work which increased left frontal brain activity or decrease right frontal brain activity. tDCS will be used to do the same thing with the anode used to increase left-sided brain activity and the cathode used to simultaneously decreased right-sided brain activity. tDCS is potentially a better tolerated procedure than TMS and does not appear to have the same risk of seizure induction. Importantly, the equipment is quite inexpensive and this may prove to be an extremely safe and effective low-cost treatment for psychiatric disorders in Third World countries.