View clinical trials related to Suicide.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to examine the proposed suicide preventive effects of lithium in a randomized controlled trial within a group of individuals with depressive disorders. The hypothesis being tested is that lithium treatment will significantly reduce the risk for another suicide attempt.
The primary study comparing effectiveness for suicidal ideation and/or behavior of two antidepressant medications in depressed patients who have attempted suicide or are currently experiencing suicidal thoughts has been completed. A secondary study component using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate different medication effects on reward processing in the same sample is ongoing.
This study is being done to look at how well people respond to two very different drug treatments for depression. Clinically, people with depression can respond differently to drug treatments for reasons which are not always clear. Some of our own recent research suggests that people with depression who have a family history of bipolar disorder or completed suicide, may react differently to standard antidepressant medications than those without such a family history. Our data shows that family history of completed suicide, as well as the known predictor of family history of bipolar disorder, may help identify a pre-bipolar high risk group i.e. they currently have depression but at some future date will declare a bipolar illness (manic-depression) by virtue of development of a manic episode also. Our research suggests that treatment- emergent symptoms in response to a trial of antidepressant, such as agitation may be strong predictors of future bipolarity and inherently dangerous particularly as they are not ascribed to the antidepressant treatment. Finally, it is possible that this subgroup of those with depressive illness may respond better and more safely to lithium, a mood stabiliser used in known bipolar depression. The objective of this proposal is to investigate response to acute lithium treatment in subjects who meet the diagnostic criteria for major depression, but who are potentially at risk for bipolar disorder, by virtue of family history of bipolarity or completed suicide.