Active clinical trials for "Mood Disorders"

This multi-modal methods study will investigate neurophysiological, endocrinological, cognitive, psycho-social-emotional markers of disease, and targets for integrative health treatments in mood disorders.

Objectives: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and recurrent mental illness characterized by depressive episodes and manic or hypomanic episodes, leading to severe functional impairment and cognitive damage. Unfortunately, it is difficult to accurately distinguish between major depressive disorder (MDD) and BD in the early stages, resulting in misdiagnosis and mistreatment. According to statistics, only 20% of BD patients with initial depressive symptoms receive a correct diagnosis within the first year of onset, with an average delay of 5-10 years from onset to final diagnosis. BD patients are often treated with antidepressant medication systematically due to being diagnosed with MDD, affecting the disease course and clinical outcomes. The current study aims to explore the role of peripheral exosomes as biomarker to distinguish BD from MDD in early stage. Methods: The study includes two stages: the first stage is a case-control study, comparing the concentrations of peripheral blood exosome metabolites (microRNA and related proteins) among three groups (BD patients, MDD patients, and healthy controls, n=30 per group) to identify target microRNA and proteins with statistically significant differences. The "latent class analysis (LCA)" on target microRNA and protein will be performed on all samples to observe whether it can effectively distinguish bipolar disorder, depressive episode, and healthy participants. Then, based on the LCA analysis results, "receiver operating characteristic (ROC)" analysis will be conducted to further determine the optimal concentration cut-off value for each indicator and ultimately determine the target biomarkers. The second stage is a clinical validation study in which subjects, who come from an on-going trial and initiated with a depressive episode and were followed up for five years at least, are divided into two groups (MDD group and BD group, n=20 respectively) based on whether they have hypomanic/manic episodes currently or previously, according to the DSM-5 diagnosed with SCID-5. All target biomarkers will be test in peripheral blood samples reserved at the initial stage to detect whether the diagnosis indicated by the biomarkers is consistent with diagnosis by DSM-5. As well as the accuracy of predicting diagnosis, the correlation between specific biomarkers and treatment response, clinical outcome, and adverse reactions will also be observed. Discussion: It is difficult to explore central nervous system diseases through the peripheral system in the context of the blood-brain barrier. However, exosomes can freely pass through the blood-brain barrier and serve as a good medium for connecting the peripheral system and the central nervous system. This study aims to explore plasma exosome microRNAs and related proteins as biological markers for early diagnosis of bipolar disorder, for example, which microRNAs or proteins are presented in the BD patient group, or what concentrations of microRNAs or proteins are significantly different between the BD patients and MDD patients. Improving the early diagnosis of BD would help develop appropriate clinical intervention strategy, improve the quality of disease management, and significantly reduce the burden of disease. At the same time, this study is also hope to provide a theoretical basis for exploring the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder.

Optimal multimodal opioid-sparing analgesic technique is considered as one of the most important Enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) or enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) interventions that mitigate the undesirable effects of surgical stress response. Implementation of ERP has been shown to reduce postoperative complications and shorten the hospital LOS.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of transdiagnostic nurse-administered 4-session group cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) plus standard care, compared to standard care alone, for improving sleep and daytime function, enhancing recovery, preventing relapses, and reducing medication burden in patients with the first episode of mood disorders.

Development of interventions that can effectively target and remediate the cognitive and functional impairment associated with serious mental illness is a treatment priority. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, non-invasive neuromodulation technique that is capable of stimulating brain activity to facilitate learning. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the pairing of two therapeutic techniques, cognitive remediation and tDCS, as a cognitively enhancing intervention. This study is designed to test the hypotheses that cognitive remediation paired with tDCS will be more efficacious than cognitive remediation delivered with sham stimulation and that intervention-induced cognitive change will be sustainable. To examine the incremental benefit of pairing tDCS with cognitive remediation, clinically stable outpatients between the ages of 18-65 who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder will be enrolled in a double-blind, double-baseline, sham-controlled clinical trial. Participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either tDCS or sham stimulation concurrent with working memory focused cognitive remediation. Training will be offered to participants in a small group format. Training will consist of 48 sessions, with 2-3 sessions scheduled in a week. Each training session will last 2 hours. One hour will be spent completing cognitive exercises that require working memory skills on a computer. TDCS or sham stimulation will be offered concurrent with the first 20 minutes of training with a StarStim neuromodulator. One mA of anodal stimulation will be applied to the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and the cathodal electrode will be placed in the contralateral supraorbital position. Upon completion of working memory training, participants will transition to a 45-minute bridging group focus on application of cognitive skills in everyday life. To assess intervention-induced change, working memory, other aspects of cognition, functional capacity, community functioning, and symptom severity will be assessed pre- and post-intervention. Sustainability of intervention-induced change will be assessed with an assessment session 6 weeks post-intervention. Mixed effect, repeated measure ANOVAS will be used to analyze intervention-induced change.

In a 3 years longitudinal, observational, multicentre study, about 500 women will be recruited and followed-up from early pregnancy (10-15 gestational week) until 12 months after delivery. The primary aim of the present study is to systematically explore and characterize risk factors for perinatal depression (PND) by prospective sleep assessment (using wrist actigraphy, polysomnography and various sleep questionnaires) and blood based analysis of potential markers during the perinatal period (Life-ON study). Secondary aims are to explore the relationship between specific genetic polymorphisms and PND (substudy Life-ON1), to investigate the effectiveness of BLT in treating PND (substudy Life-ON2) and to test whether a short term trial of BLT during pregnancy can prevent PND (substudy Life-ON3). The characterization of specific predictive and risk factors for PND may substantially contribute to improve preventive medical and social strategies for the affected women. The study results are expected to promote a better understanding of the relationship between sleep disorders and the development of PND and to confirm, in a large sample of women, the safety and efficacy of BLT both in prevention and treatment of PND.

Investigating the effects of non-invasive transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) as a treatment for auditory hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia.

The objective of this study is to investigate a stepped and collaborative care model (SCCM) for adolescent and adult refugees suffering from depression living in Germany.

Primary study: This study is a single-site, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial to compare an evidence-based structured program of 30-35 hours of on-line cognitive and social cognitive training exercises performed over 16 weeks (~2 hours per week), delivered with an innovative digital app which provides users with a motivation coach to set personalized goals and with secure social networking for peer support, "PRIME" ; vs. 2) A control condition of computer games, encouraged at ~2 hours per week over 16 weeks, delivered with "PRIME". Unblinded Cognitive Training Sub-Study: Participants who were randomized to the computer games arm of the trial may be offered access to the active cognitive training at the end of their 6 month follow up appointments, if they still meet inclusion criteria. PRIME Super Users Sub-Study: Participants who have provided all follow up data to the initial study, including those who are currently enrolled in the Unblinded Cognitive Training sub-study, may be offered continued participation in the PRIME community as super-users.

In order to identify psychological stress in children and adolescents of mentally ill parents as early as possible, a special intervention program (CHIMPs = Children of mentally ill parents) was developed. The study at hand will implement this intervention program at five sites in Germany and will further evaluate its effectiveness. The CHIMPs intervention is assumed to reduce children's psychopathology and enhance their health related quality of life.