Active clinical trials for "Mood Disorders"

Lithium is a drug used to treat several psychiatric illnesses. This medication requires particular vigilance because it has a narrow therapeutic margin: the dose necessary to obtain an effective treatment is close to the toxic dose. The blood dosage of the drug and the patient's knowledge of the drug are necessary to optimize and secure the drug intake. The objective of this observational study is to confirm that the score obtained by the LKT lithium knowledge self-questionnaire translated into French is representative of the knowledge of patients treated with lithium. Participants will be asked to complete this questionnaire twice, and the scores obtained will be compared to the blood lithium level to see if a good score is associated with an effective blood lithium concentration.

The goal of this study is to examine the efficacy and safety of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and deep TMS (dTMS) for treatment of different psychiatric and neurological disorders. Subjects will be randomized into two groups: experimental (treated with pharmacotherapy and TMS) and control group (treated only with pharmacotherapy). They and their clinicians will complete a battery of instruments that measure relevant symptoms, global functioning and quality of life. The first measurement will be done after the inclusion and before treatment. The second measurement will be made immediately after the end of treatment (after 4 weeks). The other measurements (follow-up) will be made after 3 and 6 months.

Obesity and physical inactivity have become serious problems for individuals with mental illness, resulting in increased rates of chronic disease, premature death, and substantial health care costs. Although in-person psychoeducational interventions help individuals with mental illness manage their weight, these interventions are often not used because they require frequent travel to treatment programs and substantial time from clinicians. This project addresses these barriers by developing and evaluating the effectiveness of an web-based computer system that is focused on diet and exercise education, and designed to help individuals with mental illness manage their weight.

In this trial, researchers aim to investigate if prolonged-release melatonin can facilitate the withdrawal of chronic benzodiazepine administration in patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, researchers will investigate the association of benzodiazepine dose reduction with the following clinically important variables: sleep, psychophysiology, cognition, social function, and quality of life.

One of the most frequently investigated hypothesis of the pathophysiology underlying Seasonal Affective Disorder(SAD) or so called winterdepression is a disturbance of circadian rhythms. Since the circadian system is especially sensitive for the blue portion of the light spectrum, a new light therapy device with more blue light (blue enriched polychromatic light) was tested for its efficacy to treat SAD. In chronobiological terms this light is hypothesized to be more potent in inducing non-visual effects. In the present study fluorescent tubes that emit a high portion of short wavelength light on top of the normal wavelengths are tested for its superiority in treating SAD. This blue-enriched light (colour temperature 17000 ºK) is compared to standard light treatment (5000 º K) in SAD patients., The investigators hypothesise that blue- enriched light improve the therapeutic effects of light treatment leading to a higher response or the same response in a shorter time schedule compared to standard light treatment.

This is a randomized, controlled clinical trial of inactivated negative ion generation or light-emitting photodiode therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, winter depression), for subjects with a DSM IV diagnosis of Major Depression, with Seasonal Pattern, Winter type, to examine efficacy of treatments for this condition. The trial has a 1 week baseline phase and a 4 week treatment phase.

The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has called for a transformation of the mental health system to partner with consumers of those services in delivering effective interventions focused on recovery, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has developed a Mental Health Strategic Plan to address these recommendations. One promising approach is to implement Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), a structured curriculum to help mental health consumers manage their illnesses and pursue goals related to recovery from mental illness. IMR was developed from a review of effective approaches for illness self-management training in persons with severe mental illness. The 9-month curriculum is taught using motivational, educational, and cognitive-behavioral techniques, and incorporates five evidence-based practices: education about mental illness, strategies for increasing medication adherence, skills training to enhance social support, relapse prevention planning, and coping skills training. The program was developed for widespread dissemination and includes a manual, worksheets, an introductory video, a clinical training video, a fidelity scale, and informational brochures for consumers, family members, clinicians, and administrators.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether treating sleep difficulties in patients with seasonal affective disorder also improves their depressive symptoms.

Bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) is: A serious mental illness Estimated to be present in as high as 6.4% of the population in Western populations Associated with considerable disability and high morbidity. Characterized by periods of both lowered and elevated mood (i.e. depression and mania/hypomania respectively). The depressive aspect of bipolar disorder is often overlooked, possibly due to its less dramatic nature, despite its significant impact on the lives of those affected. Bipolar depression (BPAD-DP) is associated with a twenty fold increased risk of suicide, and typically lasts three to five times as long as a manic or hypomanic episode. Despite this, there has been relatively sparse investigation of treatments for BPAD-DP, with guidelines based primarily on expert judgment rather than clinical trials. In addition a significant proportion of patients with bipolar depression do not respond to the range of commonly used medications. One of the only substantially new treatments developed for unipolar depression in recent years has been the advent of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Repetitive TMS has been evaluated in over 20 trials conducted over the last ten years, but no substantive trials have explored its use in bipolar depression. We propose to do this, conducting a large scale clinical trial. The trial will include the assessment of both high frequency left sided rTMS (as there is clearly the greatest evidence for the effectiveness of this in unipolar depression) and low frequency right sided rTMS (as this there is growing evidence of the effectiveness of this in unipolar depression and we have an excellent pilot study to suggest its potential in BPAD-DP and it has never previously been assessed in a clinical trial exclusively targeting this patient group). Our previous research strongly supports the effectiveness of rTMS paradigms including low frequency right-sided stimulation in unipolar depression and suggests these may have value in BPAD-DP. As BPAD-DP is clearly a clinical problem of significant impact and with limited treatment options, there is a pressing need for the development and definitive testing of novel treatments such as rTMS.

The goal of this study is to 1) examine the feasibility and acceptability of a one-day Acceptance and Commitment Training + Illness Management (ACT-IM) intervention in patients with comorbid vascular disease risk factors and depression or anxiety; and 2) to evaluate the effectiveness of this brief group intervention(ACT-IM), compared to Treatment-As-Usual (TAU) on the mental health and functioning of patients with co-morbid mood/anxiety and vascular disease risk factors. Patients with vascular disease risk factors will be identified by physicians in Family Practice or Internal Medicine, through chart review, or through advertisements. Those with vascular risk factors will be screened and assessed for symptoms of depression or anxiety. Patients who are experiencing significant depressive or anxiety symptoms and are interested in the treatment arm of the study will be randomized to the ACT-IM intervention or to TAU. Assessments of the following will take place both before and after the intervention: depression, anxiety, functioning, illness self-management, blood vessel health, and blood.