Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder"

Depression is very common and poses a huge disease burden. About 20% of the US population suffers from depression at lease once in their lifetime. Inflammations that are hidden inside our body as a result of aging, obesity, chronic diseases, or certain treatments (e.g., interferon for hepatitis C) appear to cause depressive symptoms and even clinical depression. Individuals with such inflammations are more likely to suffer from depression and are less likely to respond to currently available antidepressant medications. This study will test leucine, an amino acid, as a new way to mitigate depressive symptoms in response to such inflammations. This study begins with a 90-minute screening session to determine whether participants are eligible to join the main study. Those who meet the eligibility criteria will then join the main study, which will consist of taking leucine or maltodextrin (i.e., oral placebo) for 2 weeks at home and an 8-hour session at the UCLA Medical Center. A brief telephone follow-up every 3 months for 2 years with questions on mood is also planned. Approximately 90 healthy adults will be recruited for participation in the study. During the course of the study, participants will take leucine or maltodextrin for 2 weeks at home and then will be injected either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or saline (i.e., intravenous placebo) at the UCLA Medical Center. LPS is a bacterial substance that can initiate chemical reactions that are similar to those seen in individuals with mild sickness symptoms, such as a slight increase in body temperature, muscle aches, or tiredness. It is a safe way of investigating the body's response to inflammation and how these changes may alter cognitive, emotional, or neural function. It has been given thousands of times to healthy volunteers - both younger and older adults - without any serious side effects.

The purpose of this pilot study is to investigate and compare the effect of a mild inflammatory stimulus (typhoid vaccine) on immune response, mood and cognition in healthy volunteers compared to patients with history Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (not currently depressed and no symptoms of depression in the past 6 months).

This study aims to determine whether a combination a first-line antidepressant plus "RT2CK17" in a capsule relative to a first-line antidepressant plus placebo in a capsule results in higher rates of medication adherence in individuals with moderate to severe depression. In this double-blind randomized placebo controlled trial, 100 individuals with a Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS-SR) scale score ≥ 14 will be enrolled to participate in an 8 week treatment study. Participants will be randomized with a 1-1 ratio to receive 5 milligrams (mg) "RT2CK17" + 10 mg escitalopram or placebo + 10 mg escitalopram to be taken orally once per day. Participants will undergo a 3 hour baseline evaluation visit at week 0, two 30-minute office visits (week 2 and 4), one 60-minute office visit (week 8) and three 5-minute phone calls (weeks 1, 3, and 6) during which clinical assessments and measures will be obtained. The trial is designed with two stages: 20 participants in Stage 1 will be used to estimate the adherence effect size; Stage 2 is designed with an interim analysis to test our hypotheses.

This randomized clinical trial studies iPad use in reducing anxiety and depression in patients undergoing bone marrow transplant. A tablet device like the iPad can provide access to music, television, movies, books, and the Internet. It also contains a video conferencing system that can allow patients to communicate with family members and other members of their social support team. With these capabilities, an iPad distribution program may help lessen patient anxiety and depression during a hospital stay. Monitoring iPad use by patients may help doctors better understand how patients use their computers and tablets while in the hospital so that the software and applications of the iPad can be made more useful.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are common in adolescents and young adults with chronic illnesses and are associated with decreased adherence to medical regimens. However, many young patients go untreated for anxiety and depression. The purpose of this study is to evaluate an online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program in young adults with chronic illness. Prior research has shown online CBT to be effective in multiple other populations, but to the investigators' knowledge, this is the first study to examine web-based CBT for young adults with chronic illnesses.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the EnBrace HR prenatal supplement in preventing depression in women with a history of depression who have decided to stop taking antidepressants during their pregnancy, or treating women who are currently in a depressive episode while pregnant or planning pregnancy.

The purpose of this pilot study is to test the effectiveness of French adaptation of the Blues program, a school-based indicated depression prevention intervention. The program will be delivered by the endogenous psycho-social staff of 3 Montreal secondary schools to adolescents with sub-clinical depressive symptoms and compared to a no-intervention (Informational Brochure only) control condition, designed to represent the "usual intervention" in these schools.

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a prevalent disorder. Studying the factors related to PPD will help to identify families at risk and provide preventive interventions. This can in turn improve the developmental trajectories for the children. Several previous studies have investigated risk factors for PPD. However, few studies have focused on cognitive vulnerability factors. The first aim of the present study is to explore a range of protective and risk factors, including cognitive factors, for PPD, parent-infant interactions and child development. The second aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of The Newborn Behavioral Observation (NBO) as a universal preventive intervention delivered in routine practice. The NBO is a brief relationship-enhancing intervention that may reduce depressive symptomatology in mothers.

This is an open label study with a sample size of 6 to develop deep brain stimulation of the subcallosal cingulate white matter(SCCWM) for late life depression using an experimental medicine approach in which the investigators will program the device based both on 1) a neurophysiologic measure of target engagement and 2) safety (defined as lack of neuropsychiatric worsening and stable neurocognition).

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders. However, despite continued advances in ECT technique, neurocognitive dysfunction continues to be a frequent adverse effect. Declarative memory and less so selective memory are often impaired after an ECT course. Immediate memory, however, is broadly preserved. It is hypothesized that memory impairments are due to ECT induced disruptions on long term potentiation as well as in cerebral flux and glutamatergic and cholinergic systems. Different pharmacological agents for the treatment of ECT induced cognitive dysfunction have been tried. Agents such as opioids, vasopressin, neuropeptides, cholinergic agents, thyroid hormone, and stimulants have been used with equivocal results, and no controlled studies showed clear efficacy. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive, painless brain stimulation treatment that uses direct electrical currents to stimulate specific parts of the brain. Electrical currents are applied constantly at low intensities (1-2 mA) over a long period, usually in minutes (5-30 minutes), to achieve changes in cortical excitability by influencing spontaneous neural activity. There are two types of stimulation with tDCS: anodal and cathodal stimulation. Anodal stimulation acts to excite neuronal activity while cathodal stimulation inhibits or reduces neuronal activity. Several studies demonstrated moderate to strong effect sizes of tDCS in various neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric settings. Majority of studies show positive effects of tDCS on cognitive functioning among healthy volunteers and subjects with neurological or psychiatric conditions. Beneficial effects of online stimulation applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex have been reported for working memory, attention and information processing in depressed patients. To the investigators' knowledge no studies have evaluated the potential efficacy of tDCS for the prevention of ECT induced cognitive adverse effects. In the current study, the investigators propose a double blind, randomized controlled trial to test the use of tDCS as a strategy to prevent or mitigate the memory impairments frequently associated with an ECT course.