View clinical trials related to Mood Disorders.
Filter by:This study evaluates the efficacy of an eight-week online cognitive training program on feasability and on objective and subjective cognitive functions in patients with late life mood disorders (LLMD). In the feasability study two training groups will be compared. The primary aim is to investigate feasability, measured by compliance attendance and satisfaction of the participants. The secondary aim is to study the possible effects of the intervention on cognitive functions. Additionally, effects on mood symptoms, social functioning, sense of mastery and quality of lide will be studied.
Social impairments are core features of schizophrenia that lead to poor outcome. Social skills and competence improve quality of life and protect against stress-related exacerbation of symptoms, while supporting resilience, interpersonal interactions, and social affiliation. To improve outcome, it is necessary to remediate social deficits. Existing psychosocial interventions are moderately effective but the effort-intensive nature (high burden), low adherence, and weak transfer of skills to everyday life present significant hurdles toward recovery. Thus, there is a dire need to develop effective, engaging and low-burden social interventions for people with schizophrenia that will result in better compliance rates and functional outcome. In a previous pilot study, the investigators tested the effectiveness of a novel adaptive virtual reality (VR) intervention in improving targeted social cognitive function (social attention, as indexed by eye scanning patterns) in individuals with schizophrenia. 10 sessions of 1-hour VR intervention were sufficient to engage the target mechanism of social attention and improve negative symptoms. Acceptability and compliance were very high among the participants. ' The next phase, supported by a R33 grant will compare the VR social skills training with a control condition. This new protocol includes a control condition for the exposure to computerized training across the 10 sessions and incidental exposure to social interactions (i.e. interactions with experimenters twice a week for 5 weeks) by including a control condition, which involves computerized brain fitness training for 10 sessions.
The purpose of this study is to better understand mental illness and will test the hypotheses that while viewing affective stimuli, patient groups will show increased blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal by fMRI after lorazepam. This study will enroll participants between the ages of 16 and 60, who have a psychotic illness (such as psychosis which includes conditions like schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and mood disorders). The study will also enroll eligible participants without any psychiatric illness, to compare their brains. The study will require participants to have 3-4 sessions over a few weeks. The initial assessments (may be over two visits) will include a diagnostic interview and several questionnaires (qols) to assess eligibility. Subsequently, there will will be two separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions in which lorazepam or placebo will be given prior to the MRI. During the fMRI the participants will also be asked to answer questions. Additionally, the participants will have their blood drawn, women of child bearing potential will have a urine pregnancy test, vital signs taken, and asked to complete more qols.
Behavioural activation (BA) is widely accepted as an efficacious treatment for depression. It has been suggested that several depression treatments work via early changes in emotional processing (e.g. affective bias in the processing of facial expressions) and that these could help predict treatment success, but it has not yet been examined whether the same applies in behavioural interventions. The investigators will examine how BA affects early emotional information processing in participants who are currently experiencing low mood, to see whether this can predict eventual changes in mood and to gain a better understanding of the treatment mechanisms of BA. Participants will be in three groups undergoing either behavioural activation, or activity monitoring alone (active control) for 4 weeks, or they will be on a waiting list (passive control). The investigators will also examine whether other factors, such as anxiety, social support and environmental reward, can predict the success of BA. This could help us understand how BA works and who may be most suitable for this intervention.
Women represent the fastest growing population within the VHA. Many are of reproductive age and experience mental health concerns. Women with mental illness are at greater risk for unplanned pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcomes due to factors related to mental health and mental health treatment. Similarly, mental health concerns (e.g., impact of pregnancy on mental illness, psychiatric medications and pregnancy) can affect reproductive life goals and plans. Reproductive life planning (RLP) interventions that include considerations and concerns women Veterans with mental illness face are needed. The investigators adapted existing RLP materials to create an interactive, individualized, client-centered RLP intervention designed to help women Veterans with mental illness develop a mental health-informed reproductive life plan and reproductive life goals (RLP-MH). The current study aims to determine if the RLP-MH intervention is feasible and acceptable to women Veterans and if it increases engagement in behaviors to address RLP goals.
Many older Veterans in VA primary care clinics experience anxiety and depressive symptoms, but only a minority of these Veterans seek care through VA mental health services. Research suggests that some older Veterans with psychological distress under-utilize mental health services due to perceived stigma of treatments focused on mental health symptoms. However, prior research with civilians, including one study of Veterans with PTSD, suggests a strengths-focused intervention that provides group training in compassion meditation may be effective in reducing negative emotions and increasing positive emotions and well-being. The proposed project is designed to examine the feasibility of this approach with Veterans ages > 55 years with anxiety or depression. The information from the study will guide and support development of a larger-size, more definitive study, planned as the follow-up after this project. If successful, this line of research could open the door to a novel and effective treatment that widens acceptance by older Veterans with psychological distress.
This clinical trial is a single center, single dose study of the acute effects of intranasal insulin on energy metabolism and cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar disorders, compared and healthy controls.
Mood and anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions in the United States, and are associated with significant morbidity, mortality and overall impairment in functioning. These conditions often have an onset in adolescence and can be especially problematic during this time-period because it can impede normal development and attainment of important milestones. While there are evidence-based treatments for these disorders, these disorders often go untreated or under-treated with negative outcomes, particularly suicide in the case of mood disorders. Electronic communication via text messages and social media are ubiquitous and are often the predominant form of communication in adolescents and young adults. A growing body of research suggests that - at the individual level - electronic communication, including social media, activity can reflect the underlying course of mood and anxiety disorders and reveal associated risks for worsening course and negative outcomes such as suicide. In this pilot study, the investigators propose to develop and evaluate a dashboard for mental health therapists to augment the care of patients with mood/anxiety disorders.
Implementation of 'NAVIGATE' in Ontario aims to help youth and emerging adults suffering from a first episode of psychosis. Although Ontario already has early psychosis intervention programs, the team's recent work has identified major challenges of delivering coordinated care, particularly those elements of care that enhance recovery. These challenges also exist nationally and internationally. By building on the already existing early psychosis intervention community of practice through the Early Psychosis Intervention Ontario Network, the investigators will implement NAVIGATE with the help of CAMH's Provincial System Support Program facilitators. The use of tele-videoconferencing through ECHO Mental Health Ontario and ECHO processes and protocols provide us with an opportunity to ensure sustainability. Using health administrative data held at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), the investigators can examine system-level outcomes, including hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and outpatient physician visits of youth and emerging adults suffering from a first episode psychosis who are treated with NAVIGATE compared with those treated in early psychosis intervention programs without NAVIGATE and those who are not treated in early psychosis intervention programs. In addition, the investigators can also evaluate health care costs. Prior to initiating this project, the investigators obtained the input of youth and emerging adults with a first episode psychosis and family members. The investigators will also continue to measure engagement across the study. Hypotheses: 1. Following the implementation of NAVIGATE, program fidelity (i.e. adaptability) to the Ontario early psychosis intervention standard will improve. 2. Compared to patients not receiving NAVIGATE, those who receive NAVIGATE through this implementation study will have fewer days in hospital, fewer emergency department visits, fewer suicide attempts, lower mortality, and lower healthcare costs. 3. Improvements in functioning and symptoms will be comparable to the RAISE study (an earlier study assessing NAVIGATE); improvement may be influenced by demographic, socio-economic, geographic, and clinical factors. 4. The project's engagement approach will demonstrate that the investigators used the full range of patient engagement based on objectively assessed engagement metrics.
The overarching aim of the study is to determine the role of insulin signaling on the neurobiological substrates subserving anhedonia within individuals with mood disorders (i.e., Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)). Specific aims include: 1. Molecular: Assessment of components of the insulin cascade, as well as of anhedonia and reward-related processes, using a proteomics and gene expression approach; 2. Physiology: Measurement of peripheral sensitivity to insulin and metabolic correlates, including body mass index and dyslipidemia; 3. Neural Circuits: Evaluation of the insulin sensitivity of prefrontal (e.g. prefrontal cortex) and striatal (e.g. nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area) networks in the resting-state and during an effort-based decision making test, using acutely administered intranasal insulin and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); 4. Behavioral: Measurement of willingness to make effort for rewards, as well as of other components of reward response and anhedonia, using validated behavioral tasks and clinical scales (e.g. Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale - SHPS). This initiative represents a proof-of-concept study that insulin is important to anhedonia, neurocognitive functioning, and behavioural deficits in MDD, representing a novel and safe therapeutic avenue.