Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder"

The study's primary goal is to assess the effectiveness of behavioural activation in reducing depressive symptoms and re-integrate patients with depression into their personal and professional lives thus improving quality of life and helping in attaining and maintaining remission of depression. It is aimed at helping patients re-engage with several life areas that they may have lost in the course of depressive illness. The intervention is centred on behavioural activation (BA) with complementary interventions including recreation activities, and behavioural modifications. The study question is: in patients with depressive disorder attending a specialized hospital based mood disorders clinic, does the addition of behavioural activation program delivered in a group format improve depressive symptoms and quality of life compared to treatment as usual after 18 weeks of treatment? Study investigators hypothesize that behavioural activation is an effective treatment for depressive disorder in patients with depression.

This research programme purports to test the effectiveness of two Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) protocols (Repetitive high frequency protocol and Theta Burst protocol) in reducing the symptoms of depression. The study also uses Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans to improve the localization of TMS targets.

The investigators will be looking at MAO-A density before and after seven weeks of treatment with an antidepressant and dietary supplement. MAO-A is an enzyme that breaks down brain chemicals that regulate mood. MAO-A density is elevated in patients with major depressive episodes (MDE) secondary to major depressive disorder (MDD). Many remain treatment resistant with common antidepressant treatments and we think it may be due to poor targeting of brain pathologies. We want to test if adding a dietary supplement may normalize MAO-A.

The primary hypothesis is that compared to placebo, 10g of daily creatine monohydrate for eight weeks will be associated with significant increases in frontal lobe phosphocreatine and beta-nucleoside triphosphate (β-NTP) concentrations. A secondary hypothesis is that decreased depressive symptoms measured with the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) will be reciprocally correlated with increased β-NTP concentrations.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of escalating single oral doses of LY03005 in healthy subjects and to characterize the pharmacokinetics (PK) of escalating single oral doses of LY03005.

This study will investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for mood stabilization in perinatal women (preconception, pregnant, and postpartum) with a history of mood disorders. MBCT is a short-term group psychotherapy that has shown effectiveness in preventing depressive relapse. MBCT teaches mindfulness practices and cognitive-behavioral techniques.

The purpose of this study is to determine if monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) total distribution volume (VT), after phenelzine treatment and if so to what extent.

This research study will examine whether elderly depressed patients whose depressive symptoms do not respond satisfactorily to therapy with a mood stabilizer or antidepressant alone gain any benefit from taking minocycline alone or in addition to their antidepressant or mood stabilizer medication. Minocycline is a commonly used antibiotic medication with anti-inflammatory properties. It is hoped that information gained from this study will help the investigators better understand the role of inflammation in depression, and whether decreasing inflammation will lead to improvement in the symptoms of depression and cognitive function.

Patients presenting with depression (DEP) and cognitive impairment (CI), represent a unique, understudied population that is difficult to diagnose, treat and estimate prognosis. Our pilot data, supported by the literature, suggest that many DEP-CI patients show cognitive decline and often convert to dementia, primarily Alzheimer's disease (AD). In DEP-CI, there is a lack of data on treatment response of mood symptoms to antidepressant treatment and particularly of cognitive deficits to cognitive enhancer treatment. Our initial pilot data in a double-blind study showed that donepezil was superior to placebo in improving memory in antidepressant-treated DEP-CI patients. In a second pilot study, open label es-citalopram plus memantine treatment led to a low rate of conversion to dementia. In this proposed pilot clinical trial, the investigators will evaluate, treat and follow a broad sample of 80 DEP-CI patients at NYSPI/Columbia University Medical Center (N = 40) and Duke University Medical Center (N = 40). Recruitment will be from clinics and/or advertisements. In the treatment protocol, all 80 DEP-CI patients will receive baseline mood and memory assessments and open antidepressant treatment with citalopram for 8 weeks. At 8 weeks, repeat assessment will occur and patients whose depression has responded to citalopram will be randomized to add-on donepezil or placebo. Non-responders to citalopram will receive open treatment with venlafaxine and will be randomized 8 weeks later (16 weeks of open antidepressant treatment) to add-on donepezil or placebo. Patients will be followed for a total period of 18 months with continuous open antidepressant treatment during the trial. Donepezil is being studied in order to increase the likelihood of obtaining a signal. If the results are positive, the investigators can begin clarifying the mechanism(s) in subsequent trials. Baseline apolipoprotein E e4 genotype, odor identification deficits, and MRI hippocampal and entorhinal cortex atrophy will be explored as predictors of donepezil response in the 18-month trial. Improving cognition and delaying conversion to a clinical diagnosis of dementia in this high risk group will enhance quality of life, reduce family burden, and markedly diminish overall health care costs.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) that provides the feasibility, safety, and preliminary efficacy data required to design a large scale trial evaluating Tai Chi for Chinese Americans with major depressive disorder (MDD) who are not on antidepressant medications.