Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder, Major"

Cognitive dysfunction is a highly persistent, pervasive and progressive abnormality in young adults (i.e., 18-65 years) with MDD. It has also been shown that among adults with MDD who are gainfully employed, measures of cognition are a greater determinant of overall workplace performance than is total depression symptom severity. Several lines of evidence indicate that cognitive deficits that persist between episodes of depression are critical determinants of functional recovery in the workplace. The functional implications associated with cognitive impairment provide the impetus for systematic evaluation, measurement and assessment of the domains of cognition expected to be impaired in this patient population. To date, no measurement tool has been sufficiently validated and/or determined to be sensitive to the cognitive deficits in younger adults with MDD. Major limitations of available comprehensive psychometric tools include relative lack of availability, cost, lack of access to most healthcare providers, and above all else, the lengthy time to administer. Moreover, the need for a psychometrist to interpret the results adds to the complexity and the costliness of such an endeavor. It is imperative that any tool recommended for clinical utility be aligned with the busy nature of a high-volume clinical practice. The ideal gold standard tool for assessing the presence of cognitive dysfunction in MDD in the clinical environment should include, but not be limited to, features such as good conceptual coverage of cognitive domains affected in MDD, good sensitivity and reliability, and it should be relatively uninfluenced by culture effects and practice effects. The tool would also need to be brief, easy to administer and interpret, and complement busy clinical practice. This study is designed to validate a brief user-friendly tool capable of detecting deficit in cognitive performance among adults with MDD. Data will be gathered with the aim to determine whether the proposed tool identifies cognitive deficits in adults with MDD and differentiates the clinical MDD population from healthy controls. It is anticipated that the THINC-it tool will be free of charge and downloadable from the THINC-it website for use in the primary care and specialty setting. The THINC-it tool will be accessible via computers/tablets, will take 20 minutes to self-administer in a clinical setting, and the performance results will be immediately available.

Major depression is a prevalent and impairing illness. To better understand the basic science and treatment of depression, the investigators study the behavioral and brain processes associated with learning in depression and how potential disruptions in learning may be repaired. Understanding different methods that change learning may lead to novel treatments that contribute to recovery in people with depression.

Psychomotor slowing may occur in major psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorders or schizophrenia spectrum disorders. It refers to slowing of fine motor skills, motor planning and gross motor behavior. In major depression and schizophrenia, psychomotor slowing is associated with alterations of premotor cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. This randomized, sham-controlled, prospective trial will test, whether 15 sessions of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may ameliorate psychomotor slowing in schizophrenia or major depression.

Suicide is a major health problem that causes annually a million death worldwide. Loneliness is known to be associated with suicidal ideation in minors and to be related with suicidal risk in elderly people. However little is known about this association in a middle-aged population. Loneliness is a modifiable factor with suitable psychotherapeutic measures, it is essential to improve the scientific and medical knowledge about the link between this feeling and suicide risk in a population of depressed patients in middle age. The main objective is the study of the relationship between loneliness and the occurrence of suicidal behavior (SB) in major depressed adult population over 12 months. The secondary objectives are: Identification of risk factors (clinical, neuropsychological and biological) of the occurrence of SB within a clinical population and their interaction; Identification of predictive factors (clinical, neuropsychological, biological) therapeutic response to antidepressant in the context of depression.

The purpose of this study is to learn if measures of brain chemicals from a brain scan called Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (MRI/MRS) and brain activity (known as cortical excitability and inhibition) collected by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) are different in adolescents with depression who are in different stages of treatment. Researchers are conducting this study to learn more about how the brain works in adolescents with depression and without depression (healthy controls). This is important because it may identify a biological marker (a measure of how bad an illness is) for depression that could one day be used to identify depressed adolescents who would benefit from certain treatments (medications for example) or to monitor how well treatments are working.

This 7-year randomized controlled trial will compare the efficacy of non-invasive brain stimulation (trans-cranial Direct Current Stimulation - tDCS) combined with cognitive remediation (CR) versus sham ("placebo") tDCS combined with sham ("placebo") CR in slowing down cognitive decline and preventing Alzheimer's Dementia in older persons with mild cognitive impairment or major depressive disorder with or without mild cognitive impairment.

This is a pilot study divided into two phases. IN phase 1 (completed) participants will be randomized to receive 8 weeks of Problem Solving Therapy (PST) alone or 8 weeks of a cognitive training game called, Evolution (Evo) plus clinical management. In Phase 2 (now recruiting), participants will be randomized to Evo, PST, and a different cognitive training program called Words. Words is similar to Evo in that it is an adaptive training program and includes case management. IN both studies participants will be assessed for clinical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) outcomes at baseline, 4 weeks and 8 weeks.

Investigating whether delta-beta cross-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation can increase goal-directed behavior in participants with major depressive disorder and elevated symptoms of anhedonia.

This study investigates a new delivery method for the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9), a clinically accepted tool for diagnosing major depressive disorder. The new tool records auditory responses to the assesment and the study will examine if the instrument is effective at capturing participant depression levels. If proven effective, future studies may investigate if the new format can be used to improve at home clinical care.

This study aims to advance research on group sessions for mental health. The first-of-its-kind study measuring various features in a group setting, combining rich metadata in creating state-of-the-art machine learning models, and developing workflows for mental health that are both scalable and personalized.