Gerontology Research Programme: The Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies (SLAS I & II)
Cognitive Changes Due to Organic Disorder (Finding)Dementia5 moreThe Gerontology Research Programme (GRP) in the National University Singapore's Department of Psychological Medicine, was formed to coordinate and facilitate the conduct of multi-disciplinary research on in a wide range of research on ageing and health. The establishment of the Singapore Longitudinal Aging Cohort will provide a large community-based cohort of elderly subjects for observational studies with useful clinical applications. Research synergy is achieved in terms of pooling multi-disciplinary expertise, and combining genetic, biological, environmental, behavioural, social, clinical, and health services approaches to gerontological research.
Implementing a Blended Care Model That Integrates Mental Healthcare and Primary Care Using Telemedicine...
Depressive DisordersAlcohol Use Disorders1 moreIntegrating mental health treatments into the primary care delivered at Community Based Outpatient Clinics(CBOCs) that are geographically accessible to rural Veterans is a major priority for the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, there is no scientific evidence that integrating mental health and primary care is clinically effective at smaller CBOCs that have limited mental health staffing. The goal of this proposed project is to implement a "blended" combination of integrated care models that have been adapted for smaller CBOCs using telemedicine technologies, and evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of the blended, telemedicine-based, integrated care model. If clinical outcomes are improved compared to usual care, findings will be used to justify and facilitate the implementation of this telemedicine-based integrated care model at smaller CBOCs in order to increase rural Veterans' access to effective mental health treatments.
Fatigue, Depression, and Cortical Excitability in Systemic Lupus
Systemic Lupus ErythematosusSystemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with an unknown cause and many challenges. Whilst corticosteroids and effective immunosuppressive therapy have transformed the management of patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus, one of the major causes of morbidity in Systemic lupus erythematosus patients is chronic, debilitating fatigue. Despite frequent occurrence of fatigue in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been directly performed to examine fatigue-related changes in cortical motor function in Systemic lupus erythematosus. In this study, we hypothesized that Systemic lupus erythematosus patients with fatigue and depression versus Systemic lupus erythematosus patients without fatigue and depression would present an alteration of motor cortex excitability.
Measuring Response to Depression Treatment
DepressionThe primary goal of this study is to compare a new symptoms rating questionnaire, called the Vancouver Semi-Structured Interview for Depression (V-SID), to the traditionally used questionnaires. The investigators predict that the V-SID will be more sensitive to patients' improvement than are traditional questionnaires.
Probing Prefrontal Cortex Hemodynamic Alterations for Major Depression Disorder
Depressive DisorderMajorMajor depression disorder (MDD) has high estimated lifetime prevalence rates of 16.6%. Currently, the diagnosis for the MDD mainly depends on patients' reports of symptoms, observed behaviors and disease course. Establishment of clinically useful biomarkers for the MDD diagnosis would enhance patient management and treatment effect, and lead to the therapies adjusted to the individual. However, no such biomarkers have been established up to now. Therefore, the development of objective and feasible biomarkers is of special significance and a great challenge for accurate and early diagnosis and treatment of depression, in order to overcome the limitations of relying on clinical interviews alone.The ability to correctly recognize emotional states from faces is instrumental for interpersonal engagement and social functioning. Impairments processing of facial emotional expressions and biased facial emotion detection are frequently found in the MDD patients. To date, the studies on neural mechanism of the facial emotion recognition of the MDD patients were mainly based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has not been applied for the facial emotion recognition for the depression patients up to now. To bridge the important gap in the literature, we used the fNIRS methodology to investigate the neural mechanisms of facial emotion recognition for the patients with depression. We hypothesize the physiological feature of the hemodynamic responses in prefrontal cortex measured by fNIRS under the task of face emotion recognition, including the difference of the median, the Mayer wave power, the mean cross wavelet coefficient, and the mean wavelet coherence coefficient, combined with the behavior measurement (behavior accuracy and response time), could provide a reliable and feasible diagnosis approach to differentiate patients with the MDD from healthy control (HC) subjects with acceptable sensitivity and specificity.
The Effects of Pregnancy Classes and Contributing Factors to Postpartum Depression
Postpartum DepressionSleep Disorder2 moreIt is recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Obstetric Practice that all obstetricians screen each women for postpartum depression and anxiety with a validated instrument. Although much effort is made, the contributing factors still lack in the literature due to its multi-factorial nature and complexity. In addition, the effects of prenatal education classes remain understudied. Therefore, this study aims to demonstrate the prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors of the postpartum depression. In addition, the change in prevalence and characteristics of the postpartum depression among women who had prenatal classes and not will also be assessed.
Post Marketing Study for the Evaluation of Predictix Antidepressant Clinician Software Support Tool...
Major Depressive DisorderThe study is designed as an open label, one arm study. Up to 30 eligible patients will be enrolled, for whom the Predictix Antidepressant Software tool will be used when prescribed with a medication for their Major Depressive Disorder, by their treating physician. Visits will include the completion of several questionnaires designed to answer the study objectives, either as self-reported by the subjects and/ or by the clinician.
Brain Hippocampal Volume Relationship With Anxious Symptoms in Major Depressive Patients
Major Depressive DisorderAnxiety DisordersThe objective of this transversal study is to determine if there is a difference in the volume of the hippocampus with the degree of anxiety.
COMMIT Depression Trial Nepal
DepressionCommunity health workers (CHWs) have successfully used Motivational Interviewing (MI) to improve treatment adherence (i.e. taking medications and attending clinic appointments) for patients with depression in the US and globally. Mobile health (mHealth) tools can address challenges in implementing MI by providing real-time support in the community and facilitating ongoing coaching and supervision for CHWs, as these two challenges currently impede CHWs' ability to use MI. The investigators will develop then test a new mHealth app, which can potentially be used in the US and abroad, to help CHWs receive decision-support for MI and capture consented audio recordings of patient interactions for review and feedback by facility-based nurses with MI expertise.
A Study of Chinese Medicine Treating Depression
DepressionChinese Medicine syndrome differentiation has been a prevalent therapy in China for thousands of years. It is based on patients' symptoms, pulse, tongue and coating on the tongue. Therefore, the syndrome of patients and corresponding Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) may vary. This multicenter prospective cohort studies the efficiency and safety of TCM compared with antidepressants. A total number of 4600 cases with primary depression are expected to be collected and divided into 3 cohorts based on the patients' requirement and choices. Patients in one group will receive TCM, and patients in the other two groups will respectively receive antidepressants only and integrated treatment of TCM and antidepressants. This study has 2 phases: treating period and the follow-up. The main purpose of this long-term study is to evaluate the efficiency of TCM compared with antidepressants in reducing relapse and suicide rate, changing lifestyle, improving patient compliance as well as the safety.