Active clinical trials for "Mental Disorders"

The project is a 15-year follow-up of 240 young adults whose families participated in an experimental evaluation of the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a preventive intervention for divorced families. The NBP was provided in late childhood; the follow-up occurred in young adulthood. Families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: mother program (MP), dual-component mother and child program (MPCP), or literature-control (LC) condition. Programs were designed to change several putative mediators of children's post-divorce mental health problems using empirically-supported change strategies. The investigators expected that the NBP would have either main or risk by program interactive effects on mental health and substance use problems and disorders, developmental tasks, parent-young adult relationships, physical health problems, and competencies, such that YAs who participated in NBP will have better functioning than YAs in the control condition. The investigators expected that the NBP will have either main or risk by program interactive effects on mothers' mental health; those in the NBP are expected to have fewer mental health problems than those in the control condition.

This study will use CBPR mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative data collection) to conduct needs assessments and design and evaluate a core family-based intervention. Project activities will emphasize capacity building in two refugee communities resettled in Greater Boston-the Somali Bantu and the Bhutanese-actively engaging refugee community members, community advisory boards, services providers, and other stakeholders. Specific Aims are to: (1) deepen partnerships with the Somali Bantu and Bhutanese communities through co-leadership, capacity-building, and knowledge sharing; (2) collect and apply qualitative data to (a) prepare a needs assessment of mental health in children and adolescents, barriers to care, and services preferences with each target refugee group; (b) develop mental health/psychosocial assessments for refugee caregivers and children; (c) adapt the core components of a family-based strengthening intervention for use with refugees; and (3) conduct an 80-family pilot study to examine acceptability and sustainability of the intervention. Key outcomes will be reduced mental health symptoms among children and adolescents and improvement in caregiver-child relationships.

This pilot study explored relationships between cranial electric stimulation and brainwave changes.

This study is a feasibility trial, testing the hypothesis that among sedentary mothers of behaviorally at-risk preschool-aged children, those who receive behavioral parent training (BPT) programs and concurrently increase their physical activity levels will demonstrate improved parenting and child behavior outcomes compared to those who receive BPT but remain sedentary.

Iron is essential for brain development and there is a well established association between iron deficiency in infants and poor neurological development. In Sweden, about 5% of newborns have low birth weight (< 2500 g). Due to small iron stores at birth and rapid postnatal growth, they have increased risk of iron deficiency and it is therefore important to prevent iron deficiency in this population. However, excessive iron supplementation can have adverse effects in infants such as growth impairment. In a randomized, controlled trial, we are investigating the effects of 0, 1 or 2 mg/kg/d of iron on brain myelination, cognitive development and growth in low birth weight infants.

Recent studies show that 25 - 30% of depressed patients never fully recover, resulting in a treatment-resistant condition. Thus, depression is a major cause of human suffering. We are interested in finding new ways of identifying and alleviating treatment-resistant depression, and we believe that recent advances in brain imaging can contribute to achieving that goal. In this project, we will use a novel compound ([N-methyl-11C]mirtazapine) that we invented for examining the neurochemistry of brain receptors involved in antidepressant actions. Our compound, [N-methyl-11C]mirtazapine, is closely related to the clinically effective antidepressant drug mirtazapine (Remeron®). It labels several types of noradrenergic receptors that have often been implicated in "stress reactions" as well as depressive disorders. We believe that our compound can identify specific molecular brain dysfunctions that are causally related to treatment-resistant depression. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a reliable relationship between the level of mirtazapine in the bloodstream and the occupancy of neuroreceptors by mirtazapine in the brain. We will apply our standard procedures of PET brain scanning and region-of-interest data analysis, using healthy volunteers who will receive a daily dose of mirtazapine (double-blind design with placebo, 7.5 mg or 15 mg daily for 5 days). We believe that this project could provide a procedure for assessing brain function in treatment-resistant depression, with the aim of improving the guidelines for successful, evidence-based treatment of depression.

It is of great importance to generate interventions that help ensure greater inclusion and social participation of the population that was and is a victim of the armed conflict, especially in the post-conflict transition in Colombia, and to influence development in the post-accord period through relationships between groups and society. Therefore, the question for this investigation is, what is the effectiveness of a community-based cross-sector network for the management of mental problems and disorders associated with forced displacement due to armed conflict in the commune of Soacha - Cundinamarca, in order to contribute to inclusion and social participation in the post-accord period? Objective: To design a community-based cross-sector network for the management of mental problems and disorders associated with forced displacement due to armed conflict in the commune of Soacha - Cundinamarca, in order to contribute to inclusion and social participation in the post-accord period in Colombia.

Trial to prove the functionality and efficacy of a content-free speech analysis tool to detect problematic mental health status or phases of patients with pre known or unknown mental health disorders, focussed on affective disorders or neurodevelopmental disorders. The participants talk in free speech to the tool, this will be analyzed content-free and compared with psychological instruments to detect the mental status in conventional way.

During pregnancy and in the year after birth women can be affected by a range of mental health problems. Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental illnesses during the perinatal period. In low socio-economic country like Bangladesh, there is a huge knowledge gap. Perinatal mental disorders are preventable or manageable conditions if can be addresses primariliry at the community level. Better antenatal detection of depression offers an opportunity for earlier intervention to address the illness and reduce the risk that will cause longer term problems for the mother or her baby. Most of the patients do not seek care for mental health problems as they think if they go for treatment other people would tell them 'mad'. Moreover, due to lack of necessary training of the healthcare providers at primary and secondary level the patients with mental health problems cannot get adequate services to meet the requirements. Objective of the study is to develop a package of community-based primary mental healthcare services for delivering with the maternal services care in preventing perinatal mental disorders. The investigators will conduct an interventional study by using both quantitative and qualitative research methodology. At first, a literally feasible package of community-based primary mental healthcare services will be developed through series of workshops. Then training will be provided to the community health workers on developed package. For the cluster randomization trial will be done to test the efficacy in reduction of perinatal mental disorders. One group of pregnant mothers will be provided the developed package of sevices along with the antenatal care and another group will be provided only routine antenatl care. Both the groups will be ensured at least four sessions of antenatal care. Following up will be through the whole pregnancy period. Afterthat, assessment will be done on mental disorders (anxiety and depression) among the both groups and will be compared to find the efficacy of the package in terms of proportion of mental disorders among the perinatal mothers. For data collection, we use different check list. Moreover, in-depth interview and focus group discussion with different groups of community people will be done to get feedback and suggestions on the package. Then the community based primary mental healthcare package will be finalized.

The aim of this randomized, two-arm, investigator initiated, multi municipal, parallel-group superiority trial is to compare the effect on self-reported personal recovery of the following interventions: (1) 10-week group-based peer support intervention "Paths to everyday life" (PEER) added to service as usual (SAU); and (2) SAU alone. The primary outcome is self-reported personal recovery at end of intervention. Secondary and exploratory measures include empowerment, quality of life, functioning, hope, self-efficacy, self-advocacy and social network. The investigators, hypothesize that the superiority of the PEER intervention will be applicable for secondary outcomes and exploratory measures at end of intervention so that improvement in empowerment, hope, self-efficacy, self-advocacy, social network, quality of life and functioning will be improved among participants allocated to the PEER intervention.