Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder"

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a telephone-based, cognitive behavioral therapy intervention in the treatment of depression in adults diagnosed with HIV.

Emotional states of depression in association with ischemic heart diseases, such as myocardial infarction or unstable angina, are risk factors for subsequent cardiac events and mortality. However, the only psychological intervention trial attempting to reduce cardiac risk in depressed ACS patients showed that changes in depression did not translate into improved survival. Such intervention did not address issues such as lifestyle modification and improvement in psychological well-being, which were found to affect individual vulnerability to medical disease. Our research group has developed a well-being enhancing psychotherapeutic strategy, well-being therapy (WBT), which has been validated in a number of clinical trials. The aim of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) together with lifestyle modification and WBT in reducing cardiac risk in depressed and/or demoralized ACS patients compared to a standard clinical procedure of patients' management, the clinical management (CM). The same protocol will be carried out in two centres (Bologna and Torino). 100 patients after a first episode of myocardial infarction or unstable angina, meeting DSM-IV criteria for depressive disorders and DCPR criteria for demoralization will be randomized to one of two treatment groups: 1) CBT supplemented by lifestyle modification and WBT; 2) CM. In both groups, treatment will consist of twelve, 45-minute sessions once a week. A two-year follow-up will be performed. It is expected that psychological treatment may significantly decrease cardiac morbidity and mortality at follow-up compared to clinical management. The findings may entail considerable preventive implications and possible large reductions in health costs.

This is an outpatient study to evaluate the safety, and efficacy of RGH-188 as an add-on therapy to standard antidepressants in patients who did not respond to previous antidepressant therapy.

The primary objective is to evaluate, separately in diabetic polyneuropathic pain (DPNP) patients with and without co-morbid major depressive disorder (MDD), whether duloxetine given as 60 mg to 120 mg once daily (QD) leads to a clinically relevant improvement as measured by the change in Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) 24 hours average interference score from baseline to after 12 weeks. A clinically relevant improvement will be demonstrated if the confidence interval for the mean change from baseline does not lie above the clinically relevant change of -1.35. If statistically significant results are obtained for the DPNP patients with MDD, then the same evaluation will be performed for the DPNP patients without MDD in another confirmatory analysis. As secondary objectives the study will compare the two groups (MDD+/MDD-) regarding efficacy of duloxetine on BPI severity scales, the distribution of different percentages of pain reduction among the patient population, and the patients and physicians impressions of severity and improvement of pain. The study will also compare treatment outcomes regarding patient-relevant functionality and quality of life (QoL) between the two groups (MDD+/MDD-) by evaluating each single BPI interference item, the Short Form 12 (SF-12) Health Questionnaire and the West Haven Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). As a third group of secondary objectives the efficacy of duloxetine of the psychological symptoms (e.g. depression) of DPNP patients with or without depression will be assessed using the Hamilton depression scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-II and the hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Further the effect of duloxetine treatment on fasting blood glucose (FBG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) will be evaluated. To monitor safety and tolerability, treatment discontinuation rates, treatment emergent adverse events, change in vital signs, laboratory results and suicidal thoughts will be assessed.

Depression is a common and often serious problem occurring in stroke patients. Inflammatory hormones, known as cytokines, are stimulated by an activated immune system and sometimes become active following a stroke. They may be responsible for altering levels of key neurotransmitters and their metabolites in the blood and brain of stroke patients. The investigators' objective is to examine whether increased cytokine activity following a stroke may be the cause of an increased presence or severity of depression or cognitive impairment among stroke patients, as a result of tryptophan depletion and/or kynurenine activation. They are recruiting patients within one month of their strokes and measuring levels of key markers in their blood. Patients are assessed for the presence of depressive and/or cognitive symptoms and treated with an antidepressant if needed. The investigators expect to show that cytokine activation is related to depression and/or cognitive impairment among stroke patients.

The purpose of this is to determine the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of sertraline in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who have shown inadequate response ot escitalopram.

A sizeable minority of patients suffering from major depression do not have their full set of depressive symptoms relieved by a single medication. Often times, a second medication is added to a patient's first antidepressant to obtain a better response in hopes of getting the depressed patient into full remission from symptoms. A typical psychiatric approach of recent has been to add one of the newer anti-schizophrenia medications to an existing FDA approved antidepressant in order to achieve better serotonin levels in the depressed patient's brain. This optimization of brain serotonin helps to alleviate more depressive symptoms. The newest antipsychotic medication to be FDA approved is Aripiprazole (Abilify). It may be particularly effective as it may safely elevate sertotonin through receptor 1a stimulation, receptor 2a blockade. It may also facilitate low levels of dopamine transmission which is truly novel for this agent when compared to other schizophrenia drugs. Depressed patients also tend to lack dopamine in their brains. This makes Aripiprazole and ideal agent to boost both serotonin and dopamine simultaneously. In theory, this may be an effective way to alleviate more depressive symptoms. The author suggests to enroll 10 subjects initially in open label fashion to take Aripiprazole plus their current FDA approved antidepressant to see if further elimination of depressive symptoms occurs and to show this pharmacological approach as a tolerable combination of medications. If there are no major safety issues, an amendment to allow 10 additional subjects will be forwarded to provide a better tolerability sample size.

This research study is to evaluate the safety and usefulness of venlafaxine-XR in the treatment of major depression in the elderly.

This study will determine the effectiveness of combining escitalopram, venlafaxine, or duloxetine with donepezil, a medication used in Alzheimer's disease, in improving memory, concentration, attention, and problem solving abilities, and reducing the risk of depressive relapse in older individuals with depression.

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of pramipexole (Mirapex) in managing treatment-resistant depression.