Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder, Major"

Inflammation that is mediated by microglia activation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of depression. Microglia activation can lead to an increase in the levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, which leads to neuronal apoptosis in the specific neural circuits of some brain regions, abnormal cognition, and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Protein kinase C (PKC) is a key regulator of the microglia activation process. The investigators assume that the abnormality in PKC might be the serum biomarkers of depression.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of transranial pulse stimulation (TPS) on young adults with symptoms of depression in Hong Kong. Methods: This is a single-blind randomized controlled trial design with two-armed repeated measures, and participants will be followed up at a 3-months post-stimulation period. Eligbility: 1) aged 18 or over; 2) able to understand/read Chinese; 3) HAM-D-17 score of ≥ 8; 4) provide written informed consent. Exclusion criteria includes: 1) individuals being prescribed a DSM-5 diagnosis other than major depressive disorder (e.g., bipolar affective disorder or schizophrenia); 2) Alcohol or substance dependence; 3) Concomitant unstable major medical conditions or major neurological conditions such as brain tumour, brain aneurysm; 4) Haemophilia or other blood clotting disorders or thrombosis; 5) Significant communicative impairments; 6) Participants with metal implant in brain or treated area of the head; 7) Participants who undertook corticosteroid treatment within the last six weeks before first TPS treatment; 8) Pregnant or breastfeeding women. Recruitment: A total of 30 subjects will be recruited from collaborative NGOs and PolyU and randomly assigned into the Intervention Group (TPS) and the Waitlist Control Group on a 1: 1 ratio. Intervention: All participants (both TPS group and the waitlist control group) will receive six 30 minute-TPS sessions (300 pulse in each session, total: 1800 pulse) in 2 weeks' time. Outcome measurements include depression, anhedonia, instrumental activities of daily living, cognition and neuroimaging.

An open label study to assess the safety, tolerability, and effects of intranasal Ketamine in combination with rTMS for patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TRD). Patients will be given a dose of ketamine followed by 6 weeks of rTMS treatment.

The lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) is 10%~20%. Worldwide, nearly 340 million individuals have suffered the torture of depression. World Health Organization has reported that MDD would become the most serious global burden of disease and eventually turn into a public health problem in 2030. Varied clinical symptoms, inappropriate treatment, unclear pathogenesis, and lack of recurrent risk early-warning predictors cause a series of clinical problems, such as low diagnostic rate, low effective treatment rate, and high recurrent rate. Hence, this study aims to search multidimensional markers for early diagnosis of MDD, to establish optimized personalized therapy, and to explore sensitive recurrence predictors. Based on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), MDD is subdivided into eight different clinical specifiers, one of which the incident rate of MDD with atypical features reaches 30%~38%. However, there is still a lack of meta-evidence for the clinical treatment strategy in MDD with atypical features. And 45.4 percentage of MDD with atypical features convert to bipolar disorder. Therefore, this study will focus on three issues about what's the objective endophenotype in MDD with atypical features, how to select appropriate personalized treatment for MDD with atypical features, what's the predictive biomarker of conversion to bipolar disorder. Based on the investigators' previous findings, this study will investigate adult depression at a cross-sectional study and a prospective cohort study. Multivariate informatics analysis was performed from three research dimensions (cognitive neuropsychology, metabonomics, and multimodal neuroimaging), including atypical features, "cold/hot" cognition assessment, KP (kynurenine pathway) metabolomics and inflammatory factors, multimodal MRI robust property. Referring guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of depression and evidence-based medicine evidence, MDD with atypical features are divided into f groups (antidepressants, antidepressants+mood stabilizers, mood stabilizers, treat as usual). Then, the investigators perform follow-up to verify optimized treatment strategies and to explore risk factors of conversion from MDD with atypical features to bipolar disorder. Furthermore, this study performs correlation analysis to analyze cross-omics data, weight coefficient analysis to analyze multidimensional indexes, clustering analysis to analyze multivariate bio-information data, and artificial intelligence technologies (such as pattern recognition, and machine learning) to realize the transformation from medical data to practical transformation. Eventually, this study builds three specific models (the multidimensional early diagnosis models for MDD with atypical features, the optimized personalized therapy model, and the recurrence and conversion risk early-warning model), which form the integrated intelligent platform for multidimensional diagnosis, personalized treatment, recovery management of MDD with atypical features.

Depression is a common issue but there is no marker of response to an antidepressant treatment.The measurement of variation of the cortical excitability in responders to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) (compared to no-responders) had never been done before. In the study of Robol et al. (2004) concerning the acute effects of citalopram on markers of cortical excitability, the authors have pointed out an increase on the cortical silent period (CSP) after administration of citalopram (2.5 hours). The investigators hypothesize that this effect remains later and that the diminution of cortical excitability could be a biomarker of antidepressant response. In this case, they expect that the variation of CSP between day 1 and day 28 is higher in responders to a SSRI (citalopram) compared to non-responders. the investigators lead a pilot, prospective, multicentric study in drug-naive patients to compare the variation of the markers of cortical excitability (the CSP but to the resting motor threshold RMT, the motor evoked potential MEP, the intra-cortical inhibition ICI and the intra-cortical facilitation ICF) between day 1 and day 28 in responders to citalopram, compared to non-responders.

The purpose of the study is to demonstrate that the efficacy and safety of deep brain rTMS, (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) H7-Coil treatment as add on treatment, is as good as the FDA cleared, H1-Coil, in subjects with major depressive disorder that have been previously unsuccessfully treated with antidepressant medications.

Depression and suicide are two leading mental health and public health issues in Taiwan. However, until now, the optimal treatment for refractory depression and suicide is still lacking. Previous USA studies suggested a low dose NMDA antagonist Ketamine infusion can significantly reduce depression and suicide. In our study, we firstly investigate the anti-suicide and anti-depressive effects of ketamine in Taiwan. If we can find the similar antidepressant and anti-suicide of ketamine in Taiwanese, this result will have a great influence in the current suicide and depression prevention programs.

Antidepressants is the primary treatment for depression, but only less than 50% of the patients get clinical remission. There is no objective markers to select antidepressants for clinical treatment . Clinical choose usually use experience and waste a lot of time, even the patients cannot be treated timely and effectively. The investigators found that the later antidepressant effect for 8 weeks is related with early brain functional response. Present prospectively drug treatment and follow-up study intends to adopt pharmacological imaging research methods to detect the brain function or structure change of three different mechanisms of antidepressant drugs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, escitalopram), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs, duloxetine), norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs, bupropion) in depression patients. Brain functional or structural magnetic resonance imaging data were collected at baseline, 1 days, 14 days and 12 weeks after treatment. The investigators want to observe the changes of brain functional networks and structure at different time points, acute and chronic treatment induced during drug treatment. Combined with the blood concentration detection, symptom change, cognitive function tests, the investigators also hope to determine the different mechanisms of drug efficacy of antidepressants with different mechanisms. The second aim is to explore different mechanisms of brain function for effective or ineffective drug response. The results of the study will help to further explain the mechanism of different antidepressants, to facilitate the development of early indicators for drug efficacy and individual treatment decision.

The main objective of this research project is to implement and evaluate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a Blended Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (bCBT) in routine practice, comparing it with Treatment as Usual (TAU). This research project includes a pilot study and a randomized clinical trial (RCT). The pilot study main objective is to adapt the bCBT based on Moodbuster, an internet-based treatment platform developed by the ICT4Depression Consortium (INESC-TEC, Vrije Universiteit and University of Limerick), to the Portuguese population. More specifically, this pilot study intends: (1) to detect problems and refine procedures, establishing a definitive Portuguese version of the blended treatment; (2) to assess clinical effectiveness (non-controlled), estimating effect sizes at the end of the treatment and follow-up; (3) to assess patients' satisfaction and personal views concerning their process of change; (4) to develop dynamic models of the individual trajectories during treatment based on Ecological Momentary Assessments. The pilot study will involve the participation of psychologists trained in bCBT and 20 participants diagnosed with Major Depression and willing to use the Moodbuster system. The RCT is composed by two arms (an experimental condition and a control condition) and it will be implemented in routine practice. In the experimental condition, the patients diagnosed with Major Depression will receive a treatment that integrates face-to-face cognitive-behavioral sessions with online sessions available through Moodbuster system (bCBT). In the control condition, patients diagnosed with Major Depression will receive TAU that consists in routine care that patients receive in primary care. The RCT will involve the participation of family doctors and psychologists working in routine practice. One-hundred patients will be recruited and randomized in the two conditions: 50 patients for bCBT condition and 50 patients for TAU condition. The main objectives are: (1) to assess the clinical effectiveness of bCBT and compare it with TAU in routine practice; (2) to estimate and compare cost-effectiveness of both treatments; (3) to assess patients' and clinicians' satisfaction with the bCBT and TAU; (4) to refine the previous models of individual trajectories and to assess differential effects on different patient clusters; (5) to establish guidelines for using bCBT within Portuguese routine practice services.

This study investigates the brain-based biomarkers of treatment response to accelerated theta burst stimulation (aTBS) in patients with Major Depressive Disorder resistant to pharmacological treatment(MDD) in an open label design.