Active clinical trials for "Depression"

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of vilazodone for the treatment of major depressive disorder versus citalopram. Doctors want to determine if vilazodone is effective for the treatment of major depressive disorder in those who have not responded to generic selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), which is a class of anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, or Zoloft. Both vilazodone and citalopram have been approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder. This research is being done because the researchers want to find out if vilazodone works in reducing the symptoms of depression significantly more than a generic SSRI.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a brief, efficient, and effective psychotherapy for individuals with depressive and anxiety disorders. However, CBT is largely underutilized within Veteran Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs) due to the cost and burden of trainings necessary to deliver the large number of CBT protocols. Transdiagnostic CBT, in contrast, is specifically designed to address numerous distinct disorders within a single protocol. This transdiagnostic approach has the potential to dramatically improve the accessibility of CBT within VAMCs and therefore improve clinical outcomes of Veterans. The proposed research seeks to evaluate the efficacy of a transdiagnostic CBT by assessing clinical outcomes and quality of life in VAMC patients with depressive and anxiety disorders throughout the course of treatment and in comparison to an existing evidence-based psychotherapy, behavioral activation treatment.

Major depressive disorders are real public health issues in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Some forms of depression are chronic and resistant to treatment (TRD). In these forms suicide risk is important. Patients with TRD are potential candidates for neurosurgical interventions to treat depression. However, psychosurgery interventions based upon lesions, showed their limitations related to 1. the large variability in neurosurgical gestures, 2. their side effects, and of course 3. the irreversible damage caused by the surgery. Thus, deep brain stimulation (DBS) could represent an opportunity for patients suffering from TRD. Our preliminary study based upon the stimulation of the accumbens nucleus showed encouraging results. The investigators have thus planned a randomized controlled trial versus sham stimulation to confirm the therapeutic value of nucleus accumbens DBS.

The proposed project will evaluate the role of neuroimaging biomarkers of brain aging (i.e., neurodegenerative and vascular brain changes) and mild cognitive impairment in the patterns of treatment response to memantine combined with escitalopram compared to escitalopram and placebo.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric condition, mostly treated with antidepressant drugs, which are limited for issues such as refractoriness and adverse effects. In this context, the investigators investigate a non-pharmacological treatment known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). To prove that tDCS is similarly effective than antidepressants would have a tremendous impact in clinical psychiatry, since tDCS is virtually absent of adverse effects. Its ease of use, portability and low price are also interesting characteristics for using in primary and secondary health care. Thus, our aim is to compare tDCS against a fully dosed, effective antidepressant. The study will be a non-inferiority, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, three-arm trial comparing active tDCS/placebo pill, sham tDCS/escitalopram 20mg/day and sham tDCS/placebo pill. Our primary aim is to show that tDCS is not inferior to escitalopram 20mg/day with a noninferiority margin of at least 50% of the escitalopram-placebo effect.

This study is evaluating the effects of two brain training exercises on: memory, cognitive processing and depression symptoms.

This is a double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled phase II study of the effects of Low Field Magnetic Stimulation (LFMS) on brain circuitry of adults with treatment-resistant Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Eligible subjects will be randomly assigned to double-blind treatment with three 20 minute sessions of either (1) active LFMS or (2) sham LFMS. Resting state fMRI will be performed at baseline and following the third and final treatment session.

Objectives: To demonstrate the duration of the antidepressant effect of Low Field Magnetic Stimulation (LFMS)in subjects with bipolar depression. Hypotheses: Investigators expect subjects who receive LFMS to show significant mood improvement one week after the start of a three day course of daily stimulation as compared to subjects who receive sham LFMS. Investigators expect subjects who receive LFMS to show immediate mood improvement over the first treatment as measured by the difference in pre and post-treatment PANAS+ ratings. Investigators expect to show that LFMS will be well tolerated in a three-treatment protocol.

Background The rates of perinatal depression in South Asian women are reported to be amongst the highest in the world, ranging from 18%-30% in urban areas and 28%-36% in rural areas. In addition to its profound impact on women's health, disability and functioning, perinatal depression is associated with poor child health outcomes such as pre-term birth, infant under-nutrition and stunting. There is robust evidence that perinatal depression can be effectively managed with psychological treatments delivered by non-specialist health care workers. The Thinking Healthy Program (THP), a psychological treatment delivered by community health workers (CHWs) in Pakistan, more than halved the rate of perinatal depression among mothers and led to significant improvements in child health outcomes. To enhance access to such evidence-based psychological treatments there is a need to examine the potential role of other human resources such as lay persons in delivering psychological treatments such as THP in poor resource settings. Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of THP delivered by peers (the Thinking Healthy Program-Peer delivered in Goa, India; THPP-I) over the duration of 6 months. Peers will be healthy mothers who live in the same community as potential trial participants (TPs). Study design and outcomes Individual randomized controlled trial in Goa, India involving 280 women. TPs will not be blinded to treatment allocation. Mothers attending antenatal clinics at hospitals will be assessed for eligibility to participate in the trial (e.g. whether they are in the second or third trimester of pregnancy). Those who are eligible will be invited to participate in screening for depression; mothers who consent will be screened for depression with a locally validated version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Women who screen positive (PHQ-9 score ≥ 10) and give informed consent for further participation in the trial will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to receive enhanced usual care (EUC) or THPP-I+EUC, using a computer generated allocation sequence. The primary outcomes will be remission (i.e. recovery from depression and depressive symptoms), both assessed by the PHQ-9 at 6 months. Secondary outcomes are depressive symptoms and remission at 3 months (PHQ-9), maternal disability at 3 and 6 months (measured with the WHO-DAS), perceived social support, breastfeeding rates and infant weight and height of children at 3 and 6 months. Outcomes will be analyzed on an intention to treat basis. Interventions EUC will comprise communicating the results of the screening to the mother through an information sheet on self-care for mental health, communicating the results to the mother's gynaecologist, providing the gynaecologist with the WHO mhGAP guidelines for the treatment of depression, and providing guidance on referral of depressed mothers to mental health services. TPs who are in the THPP-I group will receive, in addition to EUC, between 6 to 14 sessions of THPP starting from their recruitment in the second/ third trimester until up to 6 months after child birth. Sessions will be delivered by peers on an individual basis at a location of convenience to the TPs (usually at their own homes). Implications THPP-I has the potential to advance knowledge of the extent to which task-shifting of the delivery of evidence-based psychological treatments can be extended to peers in the community. If effectiveness is observed, this approach offers a potential opportunity to access a vast untapped human resource for maternal mental health care and addresses a major barrier in global mental health - the lack of skilled and motivated human resources in the formal health sector - offering a new avenue for the scaling up of evidence-based psychological treatments and mental health services in low resourced settings.

The study's primary goal is to assess the effectiveness of behavioural activation in reducing depressive symptoms and re-integrate patients with depression into their personal and professional lives thus improving quality of life and helping in attaining and maintaining remission of depression. It is aimed at helping patients re-engage with several life areas that they may have lost in the course of depressive illness. The intervention is centred on behavioural activation (BA) with complementary interventions including recreation activities, and behavioural modifications. The study question is: in patients with depressive disorder attending a specialized hospital based mood disorders clinic, does the addition of behavioural activation program delivered in a group format improve depressive symptoms and quality of life compared to treatment as usual after 18 weeks of treatment? Study investigators hypothesize that behavioural activation is an effective treatment for depressive disorder in patients with depression.