fMRI Study of Treatment Changes in Major Depression
Summary
The overall purposes of this research are to determine if Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has the same healing effect on the brain for people with depression as traditional anti-depressants do, to find out more about the causes of depression and why people differ in the extent of problems caused by depression, and to determine if certain differences in genes within populations are related to clinical symptoms. We hypothesize that CBT will have the same healing effect on the brain as antidepressants; that differences in brain activations created by the various tasks and genetic differences will help us understand differences in the type and severity of symptoms among the depressed subjects.
Description
The overall purposes of this research are to determine if Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has the same healing effect on the brain for people with depression as traditional anti-depressants do, to find out more about the causes of depression and why people differ in the extent of problems caused by depression, and to determine if certain differences in genes within populations are related to clinical symptoms.The genes we are examining for this study are called "COMT, BDNF, and 5-HTT long arm and short arm", as well as future genes that may be discovered to play a role in depression at a later time, and will be determined by examining a sample of your saliva and a small blood sample. The method we are using to study depression is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) which takes pictures of the brain. This method allows us to identify certain parts of the brain that show how the brain works in controlling negative feelings. These pictures will compare 50 depressed individuals with 50 individuals who are not depressed.
Three tasks will be performed during the scan which are designed to cause activations in the brain areas we are interested in. In the first task, subjects will do a matching task in which the stimuli to match are either faces or houses and in which flanking distracters are either faces or houses. The goal of participants in this task is to attend to stimuli in either the horizontal or the vertical plane. On each trial, non-task relevant stimuli (distracters) are presented in the non-attended plane. One some trials these distracter stimuli are houses, on some trials neutral faces and on some trials they are negative faces. In the second task, participants will be presented with pre-recorded statements using words from the list of 555 personality/trait words compiled by Anderson (1968). Examples of these statements are "I am happy", "You are lucky", "You are dull", and "You are greedy". For negative statements, participants will be instructed to either passively listen to the statement or decrease their emotional response to the statement. For neutral statements, participants will be asked to passively listen to the statements.Subjects will then be asked how much the statement applies to them, on a 4-part Likert-type scale. In the third task, subjects will be asked to focus all their attention on a single fixation point. This will allow us to measure their resting state connectivity between specific brain regions.
Study Design
Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Single Blind (Outcomes Assessor)
Conditions
Major Depression
Intervention
Sertraline, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Location
Washington University
St. Louis
Missouri
United States
63110
Status
Recruiting
Source
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Results (where available)
Links
- Source: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01027559
- Information obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov on July 15, 2010
Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
Cognitive Therapy
A direct form of psychotherapy based on the interpretation of situations (cognitive structure of experiences) that determine how an individual feels and behaves. It is based on the premise that cognition, the process of acquiring knowledge and forming beliefs, is a primary determinant of mood and behavior. The therapy uses behavioral and verbal techniques to identify and correct negative thinking that is at the root of the aberrant behavior.
Sertraline
A selective serotonin uptake inhibitor that is used in the treatment of depression.
Depression
Depressive states usually of moderate intensity in contrast with major depression present in neurotic and psychotic disorders.
Art Therapy
The use of art as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of neurological, mental, or behavioral disorders.
Imipramine
The prototypical tricyclic antidepressant. It has been used in major depression, dysthymia, bipolar depression, attention-deficit disorders, agoraphobia, and panic disorders. It has less sedative effect than some other members of this therapeutic group.
Clinical Trials
This study was designed to determine if the novel combination of the SSRI, sertraline, and the NRI reboxetine will increase antidepressant efficacy without sacrificing the favorable safety...
Psychosocial Treatment of Depression in Parkinson's Disease
The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of a form of talk therapy called cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in the treatment of major depression in individuals with Parkinson's di...
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Early-Onset Depression
Depression is a debilitating illness affecting large numbers of young people. In this study, children and adolescents ages 10 to 17 meeting criteria for clinical depression will participat...
Preventing Depression Recurrence in Diabetes
To study the effectiveness of sertraline (Zoloft) in treating depression in adults with diabetes. The study will also determine whether depressed diabetic patients who have successfully r...
This study will compare the effectiveness of a cognitive behavioral intervention versus usual clinic care in helping HIV infected adults with depression to take their HIV medications on sc...
PubMed Articles
OBJECTIVES: The objective was to test the hypothesis that heart failure (HF) patients treated with sertraline will have lower depression scores and fewer cardiovascular events compared with placebo. B...
BACKGROUND: Despite significant advancements in psychopharmacology, treating major depressive disorder (MDD) is still a challenge considering the efficacy, tolerability, safety, and economical costs o...
No abstract available.
A Psychoeducational Intervention (SWEEP) for Depressed Women with Diabetes.
BACKGROUND: Clinically significant depression is present in 25 % of individuals with type 2 diabetes, its risk being doubled in women. PURPOSE: To examine the effectiveness of the Study of Women's Em...
OBJECTIVE: To determine if the effect of sertraline in the depression in Alzheimer's disease study - 2 (DIADS-2) differed in subgroups of patients defined by baseline depression criteria. METHODS: DIA...
