View clinical trials related to Major Depression.
Filter by:Dysfunctioning executive functioning, including working memory (WM), is related to rumination. Findings show that working memory capacity (WMC) can be increased by training. The current study explored by means of a double-blind randomized controlled trial whether an adaptive WM training could reduce rumination, anxiety and depression in a sample of 98 depressed and anxious individuals.
Anxiety and depression are both associated with impairments in executive functions, including working memory (WM) which is needed to maintain and manipulate goal-relevant information. Due to these WM impairments anxious and depressed individuals have difficulties inhibiting and shifting from irrelevant (negative) information and updating goal relevant information. This study explored whether training WM decreases these impairments and reduces clinical symptoms and rumination. Eighty-four individuals diagnosed with major depression and forty-nine individuals with an anxiety diagnosis executed WM or control tasks three times a week, during four weeks. Before, after training and at a two months follow-up measurement depression and anxiety symptoms, WM capacity and rumination behaviour were assessed. Training WM did only result in a reduction of anxiety symptoms in the depression group. These findings are inconsistent with promising results of individual studies showing training WM result in an enlarged WM capacity and a decrease of psychopathological symptoms. However, our results are in line with recent meta-analyses and reviews which show that WM training do not lead to generalized effects and therefore, doubt the clinical relevance of WM training programs.
This is a non-inferiority trial of Engage, a new intervention for late-life depression, and problem solving therapy (PST). Patient participants will be randomized to either Engage or PST and receive 9 weeks of either intervention. Interview assessments will be collected at baseline and weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 26, and 36. Clinician participants, social workers from mental health agencies, will be randomized to receive training and certification in either Engage or PST.
The proposed work will evaluate the ability of neurocognitive retraining of executive functions and emotional regulation to reduce neurocognitive dysfunctions that follow trauma exposure and thereby prevent PTSD. The scientific rationale for this work is the hypothesis that impaired emotional regulation interferes with the expected recovery from the early responses to traumatic events, leading into a chronic disorder. In an initial phase the investigators will recruit 20 recently traumatized participants among trauma survivors admitted to a general hospital emergency room and test the planned intervention's acceptance and right 'dosing'. In the second phase the investigators will enroll 80 recent survivors into a randomized controlled study of the new intervention. The intervention will consist of web-based neurobehavioral training interventions that instill an emotional bias toward positive stimuli, improve emotion recognition and labeling, reduce resistance to emotional distraction, and enhance executive functioning. Control participants will complete web-based video games that do not have emotion-regulatory benefits. Outcome measures will include improvement in neurocognitive functioning and in PTSD symptoms.
The investigators have observed in an open trial that a single session of whole body hyperthermia (WBH) induced rapid antidepressant effects that persisted for at least a week in patients with major depression (MDD) severe enough to warrant inpatient hospitalization. In addition to reducing depression, the single session of WBH induced a prolonged reduction in mean core body temperature, consistent with basic science data from our group suggesting that hyperthermia activates a skin-to-brain pathway that have been shown in animals to be important for mood and body temperature regulation. Consistent with this known anatomy in our preliminary study in depressed patients, reductions in core body temperature were highly correlated with reductions in depressive symptoms over the same time period (one week post WBH). Moreover, patients with higher mean core body temperature prior to treatment had enhanced antidepressant effects. Because increased body temperature is an outcome of poor functioning in the skin-to-brain pathway activated by WBH our data suggests that WBH may actually sensitize this pathway in ways that promote changes in brain functioning known to promote emotional well-being. The results of our first open trial have encouraged us to conduct a larger, more rigorous placebo-controlled, double blind study of WBH for MDD, which is currently underway at the University of Arizona Medical School. Missing from our assessments in this ongoing double-blind study is any measure of the impact of WBH on brain function. The current proposal addresses ths gap in our investigative portfolio by proposing to conduct a second, randomized trial of active vs. sham WBH that will examine the impact of WBH on measures of brain function known from prior studies to be important for both depression and its treatment.
The objective of the study is to examine whether a combination of wake therapy, light therapy and sleep time stabilization as a supplement to standard treatment can reduce depressive symptoms in patients admitted at two psychiatric wards at Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov. Seventy-four patients will be randomized either to this intervention or to a control group receiving treatment as usual. Furthermore, it will be examined whether the duration of admission can be reduced in the intervention group. Finally, the aim is to identify predictors of good effect of the intervention.
Severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and mood disorders typically develops at a young age and can cause life-long disability. Currently available treatments cannot cure severe mental illness. This makes it important to find ways to prevent severe mental illness in young people before it has a chance to develop. This research study will pilot a new preventive intervention for young people who are at high risk of developing severe mental illness. The investigators will target early preceding factors (the 'antecedents') to severe mental illness which includes anxiety, unusual hearing and visual experiences, the loss of previously acquired abilities, and sudden and unpredictable changes in mood. These antecedents strongly predict an increased risk of developing severe mental illness. They are often impairing and distressing to the individual but can be improved with self-management skills and parent training, and they are present in the individual years before the onset of severe mental illness which makes them an ideal target for early intervention. The goal is to intervene early enough in the young person's life that severe mental illness can be prevented, hopefully leading to a happy, healthy and productive adulthood. The investigators want to test the acceptability and short-term efficacy of this new preventive intervention.
The primary objective of the study is to compare the brain amyloid load in fully, partially and non remitting depressed elderly patients at 8 weeks of antidepressant therapy, by using PET with [F18]AV45.
In recent years it has become evident that some types of antidepressants are associated both with an increased risk of falling and decreased bone mineral density. These factors predispose patients for serious fractures such as hip fractures with substantial morbidity and mortality. The specific mechanisms involved in this negative impact on bone and postural control have not been fully elucidated. It is well known that Vitamin D plays an important role for bone health as well as muscle function and thus indirectly postural control. Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency has been observed among depressed patients. To our knowledge no study has investigated the involvement of Vitamin D in relation to the increased risk of fractures associated with antidepressants. Therefore, this project will investigate the underlying mechanisms leading to skeletal impairment and musculoskeletal symptoms in patients receiving different types of antidepressants. Moreover, the effect of vitamin D supplementation will be investigated among patients taking these antidepressants. 150 subjects will participate in this study: 50 of which is diagnosed with depression and receive Citalopram (SSRIs); 50 depressed subjects receiving Mirtazapine(NaSRI); and 50 controls. Through randomisation half of the subjects in each group will receive daily Vitamin D supplementation for a period of one year. Through this period all 150 subjects will be followed through different measurements including bone density, muscle function and balance, nociception, quality of life and depression severity. It is expected that results from this study will provide increasing awareness and knowledge of the side effect profile of antidepressants on bone metabolism. This may prompt clinicians to screen patients at high risk of drug-induced osteopenia or osteoporosis and accordingly provide treatment, which may reduce the incidence of potentially avoidable fractures. Moreover, some types of antidepressants may show to produce a minimal or even no effect on bone turnover, and should be considered as first line treatment in the group of patients at risk of fractures.
The purpose of this study is help people with serious mental illness and receiving vocational rehabilitation get and keep the job they want by improving their thinking skills, such as attention and memory, using computer exercises and other strategies. One half of the participants in the study will receive vocational rehabilitation and the exercises to improve thinking skills, and the other half will receive just vocational rehabilitation. All participants will receive an assessment of symptoms and thinking skills at the beginning of the study and 6, 12, and 24 months later. Work activity during the 24 months in the study will be collected. It is expected that those participants who receive the practice of their thinking skills will be more likely to get and keep the job they want compared with people who do not receive this treatment.