
Prevention of Depression With Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Chronic Carriers of Hepatitis C Treated With...
Chronic Hepatitis CThe purpose of the study is to check whether development of depression as a side effect of interferon alpha treatment in chronic carriers of hepatitis C can be prevented by omega-3 fatty acids.

Treatment of Severe Depressive Illness by Targeted Brain Surgery
Major Depressive DisorderThis study will report on the outcome of a clinical program, operational since 1998, that has used surgery targeting an emotional pathway in the brain in the treatment of severe depressive illness that has failed to respond to all other available interventions. Benefit from surgery was anticipated on the basis that the lesion (bilateral anterior capsulotomy) is a well established surgical target for treating severe treatment resistant depression.

Effectiveness of NEURAPAS Balance in Children With Nervous Restlessness
NervousnessRestlessness2 morePurpose: To document data on effectiveness of NEURAPAS® balance (NPB) in the treatment of nervous restlessness in children aged 6 to 12. Each patient is treated with NPB. No placebo group is established. Course and severity of symptoms is documented by a questionnaire on 13 common symptoms of nervous restlessness and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). A standardized questionnaire (Parent Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL/4-18)) is completed. Choice and doses of therapy are at the respective physician's discretion. The planned treatment and observation period is 2 - 4 weeks.

Depression Management at the Workplace
DepressionRandomized trials demonstrate that depression management products can improve clinical and organizational outcomes sufficiently for selected employers to realize a return on investment. Rather than usual care marketing which uses voltage-enhanced promises to sell voltage-diminished products, the investigators designed an evidence-based (EB) intervention to encourage employers to purchase a depression management product that offers the type, intensity and duration of care shown to provide clinical and organizational value. In an RCT designed to examine employer benefit purchasing behavior of depression products in 360 employer members of over 20 regional business coalitions, the research team proposes: (a) to compare the impact of evidence-based (EB) to usual care (UC) presentations on employer benefit purchasing behavior, and (b) to identify mediators and organizational moderators of intervention impact on employer benefit purchasing behavior. This study addresses what policy analysts argue is one of the most pivotal problems in the translation of evidence-based care to 'real world' settings: whether purchasers can be influenced to buy health care products on the basis of value rather than cost. In the likely event that EB > UC, the study will provide encouragement to use an evidence-based approach to market new health care products to private payers on the basis of the product's clinical and organizational value. UC may achieve comparable outcomes to EB if the limiting factors in benefit purchasing are organizational, purchasing group and vendor constraints that no intervention can meaningfully modify. Support for this scenario would encourage the targeted marketing of new products to coalition members with empirically identified organizational, purchasing group and vendor characteristics, using usual care strategies.

National Guard Outreach and Linkage to Treatment
PTSDDepression2 moreThis project will add an evaluation/research component to an existing peer outreach program, now implemented for over 1100 soldiers in the Michigan Army National Guard. Preliminary work will be completed in three areas. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with soldiers, Buddies, and National Guard leadership and develop and pilot test survey items relevant to implementation. Further, we will develop and pretest survey items relevant to determining soldier symptomatic and functional status. We will also conduct a small feasibility study, fielding the newly developed survey to a representative sample of recently returned National Guard members from Michigan and Indiana, to determine response rates and veteran willingness to allow access to linkable PDHA/PDHRA data and health services data. Finally, we will construct a merged, de-identified longitudinal dataset comprised of Post-Deployment Health Assessment and Reassessment data, Military Health System/TRICARE, and VA services data from National Guard soldiers in Michigan and comparison states of Indiana and Ohio. This will allow a longitudinal assessment of services initiation and retention for the entire Guard populations in these states.

Supporting the Well Being of Families of Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders
Maternal DepressionThe objective of this 2 year research project is to determine whether an evidenced-based empowerment strategy, Problem Solving Education (PSE), targeted to mothers of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), promotes family well-being by decreasing the burden of maternal depressive symptoms and maternal parenting stress and improving social functioning. We propose a randomized control trial involving 140 mothers who have children <4 years with confirmed ASDs. Based on the paradigm of the IOM report on mental health prevention research that highlights the importance of targeting interventions to at-risk populations who may not meet diagnostic criteria, all mothers of young children with ASDs will be eligible to participate. Consistent with previous studies of cognitive-behavioral interventions, the mother-child pairs will be followed for 9 months. The intervention will be embedded in two settings that provide services to young children with ASDs - Early Intervention (EI) programs and specialty developmental assessment clinics. We aim to support families during a critical juncture - when they are confronted with a new diagnosis and are asked to navigate a complex service system on their children's behalf. The hypothesis of this proposal is that strengthening problem solving skills among mothers of young children with ASDs serve as an important buffer against the negative impact of life stressors, and thereby prevent and attenuate depressive symptoms and parenting stress.

A Study of the Neurobiology of Depression
Major Depressive DisorderHealthy ParticipantsPrevious research studies have shown that depression is associated with changes in structure and activity in different parts of the brain and that antidepressant medication can affect brain activity in different parts of the brain in individuals suffering from depression. The primary purpose of the study is to find out more about how the antidepressant medication duloxetine affects brain activity and structure in individuals with depression.

Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG) Predictors of Response to Psychotherapy Versus Antidepressant...
Major Depressive DisorderThe purpose of this research study is to find out if a test can predict whether someone with depression will get better with treatment. We also want to find out whether there are changes in the brains of depressed patients having different types of treatment (drug therapy vs. talk therapy). We hope that a test called QEEG (Quantitative Electroencephalogram) can tell us if a treatment is going to work, even before the person starts to feel better. Hypothesis 1: Response to treatment will correlate with changes in QEEG metrics. Hypothesis 2: QEEG parameters, different from those that predict response to pharmacotherapy, will be associated with response to CBT.

R4Power: An Online Resilience Program for Adolescents
DepressionAnxietyThe study will evaluate the R4Power program, an online intervention designed to teach adolescents coping and problem-solving skills.

Perioperative Depression and Postoperative Arrhythmia in Elective Coronary Bypass Graft Surgery...
Coronary Artery DiseasePostoperative arrhythmias (heart irregularities) are one of the most common complications after cardiac surgery and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Preoperative depression may be an important co-factor in the generation of postoperative arrhythmias due to sympathetic hyperactivity evident in patients with depression. Objectives: To determine the effect of preoperative depression on postoperative arrhythmia in patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Prospective observational study, 120 patients undergoing elective CABG surgery ECG will be preformed preoperatively on all patients. All patients will be assessed for signs of depression using the Prime MD Patient Health Questionnaire (Prime MD PHQ) one week before surgery and 6 weeks postoperatively.Based on the Prime MD PHQ results, patients will be divided into two groups: those with or without signs of depression. Heart rate and rhythm monitoring with Holter will be performed for 3 days postoperatively in order to compare the incidence of postoperative arrhythmias between groups. The primary outcome is the number of patients with and without depression suffering from ventricular and/or supraventricular arrhythmias. Secondary outcomes include all cause mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, and congestive heart failure. CABG surgery is the most common operative procedure in North America and arrhythmias are one of the most common postoperative complication. It is estimated that about a third of these cardiac patients suffer from preoperative depression and therefore may be exposed to a higher risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality. If an association between preoperative depression and postoperative arrhythmia is found, treatment modalities may be indicated to reduce the prevalence of perioperative arrhythmia in patients with preoperative depression undergoing cardiac surgery.