Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder"

Affective disorders (mainly including major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder) are common, chronic and highly disabling mental disorders, which lack of objective biological markers. It is believed that genetic and environmental factors are involved in the development of affective disorders. Gut microbes can affect the function of brain neural circuits by mediating metabolic, immune, endocrine and autonomic changes along the brain-gut axis. The brain can also regulate intestinal microbes through endocrine, neural structure, neurogenic exosomes and other pathways. Based on the brain-gut axis, this study intends to establish a large cohort of affective disorders, and screen out efficient and convenient biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and efficacy prediction by studying key indicators such as intestinal microbes, serum metabolites and immune indexes, brain-derived exosomes, and brain functional imaging.

An explorative, open label, single armed, flexible dose, single center, phase IIa study of 8 weeks, initiated in inpatients with bipolar depression. The study will consist of 9 visits and 1 safety visit. Inpatients with a primary diagnosis of bipolar disorder (type 1 or 2) currently in an acute depressive phase (i.e. bipolar depression) and being on stable medication with at least one mood stabilizer.

Although there are an increasing number of mental health treatment adaptations for older adults, there are still a number of factors to consider when making these adaptations. Cognitive decline is one such factor that places significant burden on older adults and can interfere with traditional mental health therapies. Engage is a behavioral treatment approach that has shown to be effective in treating late life depression. The investigators are testing the feasibility of Engage as a treatment method for late life depression in older adults with cognitive decline. The objective is to corroborate Engage as an alternative late life depression treatment method for a sub-population of older adults with cognitive decline. Cognitive decline poses a unique mental health treatment barrier that is often over looked in younger populations. With a relatively higher prevalence of cognitive decline in older adulthood, it is imperative that a feasible mental health treatment program that can be effective in the presence of cognitive decline.

Perioperative depression and/or anxiety play a critical role in patient presentation, satisfaction and outcomes. The aim of this study is to assess the level of perioperative depression and/or anxiety in patients with arthroscopic knee surgery and to evaluate their relationship with anesthesia approach (general anesthesia or non general anesthesia). The perioperative characteristic of depression or anxiety is assessed by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaires and the level of salivary cortisol, salivary α-amylase (sAA) and blood glucose.

Depression is a recurrent debilitating psychiatric disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 20%. Even though antidepressants and psychotherapy are often effective, a substantial proportion of patients does not respond to currently used evidence-based treatments. The heterogeneous nature of depressive symptoms is a major obstacle for the development of novel effective treatments, and targeted treatments for depression are currently lacking. The investigators propose a targeted disease-modifying treatment for the clinically distinct form of depression related to childhood trauma (CT, emotional/ physical/sexual abuse or neglect before the age of18). CT-related depression is critically different from non-CT depression: it emerges earlier in life with more severe and recurrent symptoms and less favorable responses to treatment. With an average 25% prevalence in depression, there is a large and unmet need for therapeutic strategies to treat depression in individuals with substantial CT. The GR is the major cortisol receptor in the brain and rodent studies have shown that GR blockade at adult age can reverse the effects of early-life adversity. Therefore, GR blockade is a potential novel treatment for CT-related depression but this has never been investigated. Based on the underlying stress neurobiology, the aim is to investigate whether the biological sequelae of excessive stress due to CT can be targeted by blocking the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) using the generic drug mifepristone.

Chronic intracalvarial cortical stimulation is a minimally invasive method involving the neurosurgical placement of an electrode above the inner table of the skull. Over time, intracalvarial cortical stimulation is intermittently activated to modulate locally and distally connected brain regions. Because of the important role played by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in mood regulation, the goal of this study is to apply intracalvarial prefrontal cortical stimulation (IpCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in severely treatment-resistant depressed (TRD) patients. Per the DSM-V and Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) nomenclatures, TRD patients are commonly defined as those whose treatment failed to produce response or remission after 2 or more attempts of sufficient duration and treatment dose. In the investigator's study, eligible TRD subjects will have a diagnosis of major depressive disorder with a suboptimal response to an adequate dose and duration of at least two different antidepressant treatment categories. These subjects will also have had exposure and transiently (non-durably) responded to non-invasive neurostimulation. The investigator anticipates that severely Treatment Resistant Depressed (TRD) Subjects with IpCS of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex will show a significant decrease in depression symptoms as measured by the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) at four months post-implant when compared to baseline. The investigator will enroll up to 20 subjects with severe refractory depression in an open trial, followed for up to one year. Depressive and cognitive symptoms will be rated periodically to assess the safety and efficacy of this procedure.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been successfully used to help patients with treatment resistant depression. However, its role in alleviating self injuries without suicidal ideation remained uncertain. This trial will compare the effectiveness of active accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (aiTBS) rTMS to a placebo control on non-suicidal self injury (NSSI) in patients with unipolar disorder and bipolar disorder.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of two adaptive treatment strategies (ATSs) for adolescent depression. The ATSs include delivery of an evidence-based psychotherapy (interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents, IPT-A), systematic symptom monitoring, and an empirically-derived algorithm that specifies whether, when, and how to augment IPT-A. Two hundred depressed adolescents (age 12-18) will be recruited to participate in a 16-week sequential multiple assignment randomized trial conducted in outpatient community mental health clinics. Adolescents will be randomized to the IPT-A ATS condition or the community clinic's usual care (UC). Adolescents in the IPT-A ATS condition who are insufficient responders will be randomized a second time to the addition of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or more intensive IPT-A (delivered twice per week). Research assessments will be administered at baseline and at weeks 4, 8, 12, 16, and 36.

This trial aims to assess the efficacy and tolerability of Magnetic Seizure Therapy (MST) as an alternative to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for depression. Even with multiple medication trials, 30 - 40% of patients will experience a pharmacologically resistant form of illness. The ineffectiveness of current treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) coupled with the economic burden associated with the disorder engenders a need for novel therapeutic interventions that can provide greater response and remission rates.

In this study, the investigators will be examining the effects of the deep repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) using the H1 coil in patients over the age of 60 diagnosed with mild to early-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and comorbid Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) who have been unable to tolerate or failed to respond to antidepressant medications. The coil was designed to stimulate deeper regions of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Based on prior research, the investigators propose that active stimulation with the H1 coil for 4 weeks may result in significant remission rates and will be tolerable and safe.