Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder"

This is a study to assess the impact of introducing screening and planned follow up for postpartum depression. All women ages 18 to 45 who speak English or Spanish who come to the enrolled community family medicine offices will either be given usual care or screened using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Screening tool. If the EDPS score is high the women will be given the PHQ-9 to more clearly identify the specific likelihood of being depressed. Women who are determined to be depressed will be treated with medication or counseling based on the preference of the women and their physicians. Women will be followed through nurse initiated phone calls and visits to the physicians office. Outcomes include the level of depression symptoms, measure of comfort with parenting, and satisfaction with partner relationships comparing baseline levels with those at 6 and 12 months from the usual care and intervention sites. These data will be collected by questionnaire. In addition, with the women's permission, medical records will be reviewed.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationships among findings in structural and functional neuroimaging, cognitive testing and HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis dysregulation in psychotic depression.

The goal of the proposed research is to examine the neural correlates of depressive symptom reduction in individuals with major depressive disorder using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and to compare results to those obtained from a nondepressed control group.

This study will evaluate the risks and benefits of treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor in children and adolescents with a pre-specified anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, eating disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This study will examine if depression in a primary caregiver is associated with more hospitalization or ER visits in children with asthma. This study will also explore whether treatment for depression in the primary caregivers is associated with improvement in asthma in school-aged children. Asthma is a very common childhood disorder of airway inflammation. The causes include environmental irritants, cold temperature, and infection in the respiratory tract, and emotional factors can contribute to symptom exacerbation. However, asthma is a disease that can be well controlled if there is proper medication compliance and careful control of environmental conditions. Data suggests that psychiatric symptoms in the mothers of children with asthma are associated with more asthma related hospitalizations in children. Thus, we want to explore this question further using more specific diagnostic instruments in order to detect what types of symptoms are associated with increased asthma related service utilization. Also, we want to explore if effective treatment of the caregivers' symptoms is associated with decreased hospitalization and emergency room visits for the child.

This study seeks to increase the understanding of dopamine receptor function in the brain during major depressive disorder and bipolar depression, as well as genetic changes that may be behind changes in those receptors' actions. Dopamine is a natural messenger in the brain, involved in reward, motivation, and mood. Volunteers aged 18 to 55 who have primary major depressive disorder and those who have bipolar depression (20 in each group), who are not HIV positive and do not have AIDS, and who are not pregnant or breastfeeding may be eligible for this study. A telephone interview will be held, for patients to answer standardized questions about psychiatric or medical symptoms they may have experienced during their lifetime. Those eligible for the study will undergo interviews and laboratory tests. A psychiatric interview and clinical assessment will collect various data. Patients will undergo the following procedures and tests: A brief neurological examination A one-minute electrocardiogram to measure electrical activity of the heart. Laboratory tests measuring several substances in the blood and urine. Pregnancy test. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan will be done to create an image of the volunteer's brain structure. The technique of MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to obtain images of body organs and tissues. During the MRI scan, volunteers will lie still on a table that will slide into the scanner for 30 minutes and in some cases up to but no more than 90 minutes. Volunteers will be asked to lie as still as possible during the procedure. Then a PET system will create two images of brain blood flow-one of brain dopamine 1 receptor and one of dopamine 2/3 receptor binding. Volunteers will be given a radiotracer, a tiny amount of a drug that can be detected by a special camera in the PET scanner. A tiny flexible tube will be placed in the vein of one arm during each PET scan but during the MRI scan. Volunteers will be asked to lie still on the PET scanner table. A mask with large holes for eyes, ears, and mouth will be placed over the head, to keep the head from moving. After radiotracer injections are given, the PET scanner will create brain images. There may be two PET scanning sessions, each requiring about 3 hours of scanning. During only one of these there will be breaks. At the end of the scanning session, volunteers will be asked to drink several glasses of water and urinate immediately, to reduce radiation exposure to the bladder wall. Genetic screening will help to enhance researchers' understanding of the role of dopamine receptors in depression. A small blood sample, about 2 tablespoons, will be collected, to isolate DNA from blood cells. Some of the blood samples or DNA may be stored for future studies, but those samples will remain coded, so participants will not be identified. This study will not have a direct benefit for participants. However, the results may provide knowledge to help people in the future. This study does involve compensation.

The study will involve a 3-week (15 session) randomized double-blind clinical trial of two repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) conditions in patients with treatment resistant depression. rTMS site selection will be localized from structural MRI scans. The patients will be randomized to one of two conditions rTMS targeted to the border of Brodmann area 46 and Brodmann area 9, rTMS targeted to premotor cortex (this condition will act as the non-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex targeted control).

The purpose of this study was to discuss the relation of mastery, social support and depression in patients with depressive disorder. Cross-sectional quantitive study and purposive sampling method were designed. Data collection and analysis was conducted through structural questionnaires (including demographics, social support scale, mastery scale, CESD scale) at a medical center in Taipei. Results showed that patients with depression whose degree of depression was negative correlated with mastery and social support, and mastery was positive correlated with social support. Regression statistics results showed that mastery, social support, age, loss of jobs can predict degree of depression up to 60 percent. The mastery was strongest independent predictable factor to degree of depression, and had partial or total mediate effects to age, loss of jobs, financial condition, and social support. The result of this study suggested that clinically the care of patients with depression should focus on their confidence in mastery and provide strategies to promote their confidence in mastery, which can effectively reduce the degree of depression of those patients.

Often women are prescribed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during the perimenopause or menopause. Hormone replacement therapy includes both estrogen and progesterone. The estrogen component of HRT helps to relieve the symptoms and has a beneficial effect on the heart and bones, but estrogen also increases the risk of uterine cancer. The progesterone component of the HRT (progestin) works to prevent the increased risk of uterine cancer. There is evidence that some women experience unpleasant mood symptoms (such as irritability, depressed mood and anxiety) while receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) while taking the progestin / progesterone component of the HRT. This study is designed to evaluate the ability of progestins to produce negative mood symptoms in women. Researchers intend on doing this by comparing the effects of medroxyprogesterone acetate (Provera) and a placebo inactive sugar pill. Patient's moods will be monitered based on their response to questionnaires answered in the outpatient clinic and at home. This research will attempt to answer the following questions: Are progestins associated with changes in mood during hormone replacement therapy? If progestins are associated with mood disturbance, is it because they are blocking the beneficial effects of estrogen?

Medical personnel working in the Intensive Care Unit will be examined by means of tests. Their aim is to check how work-related stress in a potentially lethal threat affects the occurrence of depression, stress, anxiety and sleep disorders. We also want to check whether people working in such extremely difficult conditions show no greater interest in death.