Active clinical trials for "Depression"

To compare the clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of blended Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) with treatment as usual (TAU). Within the French context the TAU is considered as the traditional face to face CBT.

In this randomized clinical trial, subjects will be assigned to either an assay-guided treatment condition (AGT) or a treatment-as-usual condition (TAU). All subjects will provide a DNA sample at the Screening Visit for the Genecept Assay ™. In the AGT condition, assay results will be provided to the treating investigator, who will use the results to guide antidepressant pharmacotherapy. In the TAU condition, the investigator will treat the subjects without the knowledge of the pharmacogenetic testing results. Assay results for all subjects will be provided to the investigator once all Week 8 visit procedures have been completed. Raters of the primary endpoint assessment and subjects will remain blinded to treatment assignment.

Multiple Sclerosis has a great impact on psychological functioning of patients and can be associated with various psychological disorders and symptoms. The most prevalent one is depression, which ranges from 15% to 47%. Mindfulness Based Intervention (MBI) is a relatively brief and cost-effective program that has been studied in patients with several diseases. Aims. To evaluate the efficacy of a group-based MBI on depressive symptoms, QoL and on correlated symptoms of MS patients and their caregivers. Methods. The study design is a randomized controlled clinical trial. The subjects of the study are 88 patients with MS and depressive symptoms that will be pre-screened from among a catchment group of about 500 patients using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI). The 88 patients will subsequently be randomized into two groups (44 in the experimental group and 44 in the active control group). The psychological assessment, independent and blind to treatment, will be performed with the same timing and tools: at baseline (T0), after treatment (T1), and 6 months after the end of the group intervention (T2). The assessment will encompass the administration of the clinical interview and other self-report questionnaires. The experimental group will undergo a 8 weekly sessions of 3 hours each (plus an all day session) with group based MBI. The MBI is an Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction protocol integrated with body centered techniques from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, in order to better tailor it on the needs of people with MS suffering from depressive symptoms. The active control group is designed to control for the non-specific elements of the MBI treatment and will follow the same structure as the MBI. It will be based on a psycho-educational framework and will include relaxation techniques. Primary outcome measures in patients will be: 1) the proportion of participants at T1 and T2 that does not have a BDI-II score greater than 13; 2) the proportion of patients no longer meeting the diagnostic criteria for mood disorders as assesses by the SCID; 3) the improvement of FAMS scores for the six primary aspects of QoL.

This protocol proposes a pilot randomized clinical trial to examine whether Low Pulse Amplitude Focal ECT (LAP) has a more favorable cognitive profile compared to conventional unilateral ECT and that it has similar effects as traditional ECT in reducing suicidality. The study will enroll 10 patients recruited from the Medical College of Georgia (at Georgia Regents University/Augusta University, GRU/AU) as the only site of the study. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to receive a course of either RUL LAP ECT, or conventional RUL ECT.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an emergent non-invasive treatment for treatment resistant depression (TRD). The exact neuro-functional mechanisms related to TMS efficiency remains however unknown; besides local effect on the target, TMS may induce interaction changes between remote cerebral regions. On the other hand, few studies have been performed in comparison to sham placebo stimulation. The investigators recently showed that non-responder depressive patients to TMS exhibited deeper and wider brain functional abnormalities hardly reachable by standard coils. The H1-Coil is a novel TMS (H-TMS) device capable of inducing a magnetic field with a deeper and wider distribution than standard coils. The investigators design here a randomized controlled study in which the investigators will compare the clinical effects of H-coil TMS and standard TMS in patients with TRD, and their functional neuroanatomical correlates and changes in connectivity by Positron Emission Tomography (PET). The general objective is to better understand the mechanisms related to TMS efficiency in pharmacoresistant depression, in order to propose the best therapeutic approach for the patient.

Anxiety and depression are among the most common mental disorders in the population. Anxiety and depression have significant consequences at the individual, family and community level, and mental illness is estimated to cost the Norwegian society 180 billion Norwegian kroner annually. The majority of this amount is accounted for by anxiety and depression disorders. Meanwhile, access to mental health services to treat these disorders is limited. The proportion of people who do not receive treatment of those who are in need of treatment is estimated to be over 50%. Prompt Mental Health Care (PMHC) is a pilot project initiated in 2012 by the Directorate of Health commissioned by the Ministry of Health, with the goal of increasing access to evidence-based treatment for adults with anxiety disorders and mild-to-moderate levels of depression. The treatment offered is cognitive behavioural therapy and should lead to reduced levels of symptoms of anxiety and depression, improved quality of life and better employability. PMHC is based on the English program "Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT)", which is established in virtually all health communities in England. The evaluations of IAPT and PMHC have until now been based on relatively weak research designs which make it difficult to know to what extent the initiative really has the desired effect. In this study, PMHC is compared with a control group that receives treatment as usual (often provided by the general practioner) in two PMHC pilot sites (Kristiansand and Sandnes). Participants are randomly assigned to either the PMHC or the control group. The investigators aim to include 1100 clients in the study. The key objectives of this study are to investigate whether PMHC treatment is more effective as compared to treatment in the control group with regard to symptoms of anxiety and depression, work participation, functional status, and mental well-being. Cost-effectiveness of PMHC is also examined.

The purpose of this study is to establish the feasibility and acceptability of a breath-based meditation in stroke survivors with post-stroke depression (PSD) and their informal caregivers, as well as to examine the effects of the breath-based meditation. The hypothesis is that the breath-based meditation will lead to decreases in the severity of symptoms of PSD, post-stroke anxiety (PSA), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and decreases in plasma IL-1 pro-inflammatory cytokines post-intervention in stroke survivors with PSD and their informal caregivers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate exploratorily the effect of ramelteon 8 mg once daily for 8 weeks in the treatment of insomnia patients with depression by using actigraphy.

In a 3 years longitudinal, observational, multicentre study, about 500 women will be recruited and followed-up from early pregnancy (10-15 gestational week) until 12 months after delivery. The primary aim of the present study is to systematically explore and characterize risk factors for perinatal depression (PND) by prospective sleep assessment (using wrist actigraphy, polysomnography and various sleep questionnaires) and blood based analysis of potential markers during the perinatal period (Life-ON study). Secondary aims are to explore the relationship between specific genetic polymorphisms and PND (substudy Life-ON1), to investigate the effectiveness of BLT in treating PND (substudy Life-ON2) and to test whether a short term trial of BLT during pregnancy can prevent PND (substudy Life-ON3). The characterization of specific predictive and risk factors for PND may substantially contribute to improve preventive medical and social strategies for the affected women. The study results are expected to promote a better understanding of the relationship between sleep disorders and the development of PND and to confirm, in a large sample of women, the safety and efficacy of BLT both in prevention and treatment of PND.

Developing more effective and faster acting antidepressant is of outmost clinical importance. Available antidepressant therapies have a delayed therapeutic effect. It typically takes several weeks before symptom relief is evident. Furthermore, antidepressants are relatively ineffective - as many as 30% of patients do not respond to any medication at all. In this study the investigators evaluate the NMDA-receptor antagonist ketamine as a potentially new antidepressant treatment for severely depressed patients and compare its effectiveness with that of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).