Active clinical trials for "Depressive Disorder"

Depression affects up to 20% of people in their lifetime and can be a severe debilitating illness. Indeed, the World Health Organisation has estimated that depression will soon be the second leading contributor to the burden of disease worldwide. One of the big problems for patients and doctors is that currently available antidepressant drugs and psychotherapies do not work for 30% of people. However, about 60% of such treatment-resistant patients will recover fully with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Even though it was developed over 75 years ago, ECT continues to be the most powerful treatment for severe, often life-threatening, depression. Despite that, we have recently reported that severe depression symptoms return (called a "relapse") in nearly 40% of such responders within six months of completing a course of ECT. Actually, such high relapse rates are seen for all patients with treatment-resistant depression, irrespective of what treatment they have received. There is thus an urgent need for better treatments to prevent relapse and one such possibility is an old drug called ketamine. Ketamine blocks the activity of glutamate, one of the major chemical messenger systems in the brain. Because of this effect it is sometimes used as an anaesthetic but it can also make you feel a bit "high" and so is sometimes abused as a recreational drug. Fortunately, in small doses it is quite safe. Recently, it has been found that ketamine has a remarkably rapid, but brief, antidepressant effect, including reducing suicidal thoughts. We wish to evaluate ketamine as a way to reduce relapse rates in people who have just been treated successfully with ECT for severe depression. Developing such a new treatment, and understanding how it works, would be of tremendous benefit to persons with severe depression, their families, and the wider society.

The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a family-based preventive intervention designed to reduce sexual risk behaviors and depressive symptoms among South African adolescents and their parents/guardians/caregivers.

Pregnant women with histories of depression are at high risk of depressive relapse/recurrence during the perinatal period, and options for relapse/recurrence prevention are limited. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has strong evidence among general populations but has not been studied among at risk pregnant women. This study is the second phase of a multi-phase project adapting MBCT for perinatal women (MBCT-PD).

This is an investigator led, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, double arm comparator study.

Few studies targeting obesity in serious mental illness have reported clinically significant risk reduction, and non have been replicated in community settings or demonstrated sustained outcomes after intervention withdrawal. The researchers sought to replicate positive health outcomes demonstrated in a previous randomized effectiveness study of the In SHAPE program across urban community mental health organizations serving an ethnically diverse population.

Depression in late life has been associated with losses in functioning and quality of life, mortality, and increased health care costs. Although late life depression can be successfully treated with antidepressant medication or psychotherapy, few older adults receive adequate trials of such treatment in community in Korea. Barriers, such as loss of loved ones, medical illnesses, and social stigma associated with depression, lack of social and financial support, to effective treatment of depression can be especially problematic for older adult. Screening has been valuable in overcoming barriers to diagnosis. Over 60 year old community dwelling people will be screened for symptoms of four geriatric conditions (depression, dementia, urinary incontinence, and sleep disorder). Those who will be screened positive for each condition will be refer to clinic for diagnosis. Among them only those cases confirmed as depression by psychiatrists will be enrolled in this study. Enrolled patients will be randomly assigned to either case management or usual care conditions. The objective of the study is to test whether a system of screening, assessment, and follow-up provided by case manager improves in recognizing the target geriatric conditions (depression, dementia, urinary incontinence, and sleep disorder) and healthcare outcomes.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of a behavioral intervention, cognitive behavioral therapy for sleep quality (CBT-SQ) to reduce sleep complaints, depression recurrence, and cellular and genomic markers of inflammation in older adults with sleep complaints who have a prior history of depression. The investigators aim to: 1) evaluate the effects of CBT-SQ vs. Sleep Seminar (SS) on objective (actigraphy) and subjective (sleep diary; questionnaire) measures of sleep symptoms over a two-year follow-up; 2) determine the effects of CBT-SQ vs. SS on recurrence of depressive symptoms and depression episode(s) over a two-year follow-up. The investigators will also secondarily examine the effects of CBT-SQ vs. SS on cellular and genomic markers of inflammation over a two-year follow-up, and explore whether markers of inflammation and cytokine genes can explain variability in the risk of depression recurrence in those older adults receiving CBT-SQ vs. SS. The present study is highly significant by being the first study, to the investigators knowledge, to focus on the prevention of depression in community dwelling older adults who have a history of depression, and by targeting sleep disturbance, a modifiable risk factor to prevent depression recurrence.

This study is dedicated to achieving a better understanding of how the brain processes information. Specifically, the investigators are studying cognitive function, thought process, and impulsivity in people with and without suicidal thoughts. You are being asked to participate in a research study to learn how the use of a medication, risperidone, improves your symptoms of depression. Specifically the investigators are studying the effectiveness of reducing the thought of suicide and other symptoms of severe depression. Risperidone is approved by FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar mania, and clinical practice suggests that it might benefit patients with major depressive disorder. During clinical trials with 2607 patients, risperidone was proved to be safe. This is a pilot study to test a new indication of risperidone for treatment of severe depression. The study medication will be given in addition to usual psychiatric care.

Ketamine infusions resulted in an acute reduction in global depression scores and in severity of suicidal ideation. Scopolamine infusions produced also a significant improvement in depression that was sustained over time. We therefore plan to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of open-label repeated intravenous administration of ketamine and scopolamine combined in this population of severely depressed, treatment-resistant patients. The results from this study could lead to the development of new strategies for the treatment of patients with TRD.

Depression is common among elderly with an estimated prevalence of 5%. Due to ageing the national burden will double in the coming decade. Antidepressants as TCAs and SSRIs are effective in reducing symptoms, especially in people with severe depression. To optimize treatment efficacy and reduce side effects, the Pharmacogenetics Working Group of the Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association developed guidelines for dose-adaptation, for instance for antidepressants such as nortriptyline and venlafaxine based on their main relevant genotype (CYP2D6) accompanied by Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. Such personalized drug dosing based on pharmacogenetic information at the start of therapy can speed up the titration phase of antidepressants to establish an adequate maintenance dose. However, pharmacogenetic screening programs are expensive and evidence on effects and costs of such a program among elderly antidepressant starters from randomized controlled studies is lacking. The investigators will conduct a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to determine the effects and costs of pharmacogenetic screening information to optimize drug dosing in depressed elderly patients who start with nortriptyline or venlafaxine. Objective: The primary objective is to determine the effects of pharmacogenetic screening for CYP2D6 on the time to reach adequate blood levels as an accepted proxy for adequate treatment. Secondary objectives include adverse drug reactions and cost-effectiveness Study design: pragmatic randomized controlled intervention study