fMRI Studies of Emotional Brain Circuitry in People With Major Depression

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2008-06-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

This study will examine activation of a brain circuit that regulates emotion in depressed patients before and after treatment to see which areas of the brain are involved in chronic depression.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); Washington University School of Medicine
• Collaborator: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• Treatments: Citalopram

Criteria

Depressed:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participant meets DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder

• Minimum score greater than 18 on Hamilton Depression Inventory

• Participant is right handed

• Participant speaks English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Significant limitations that would interfere with testing procedures, such as uncorrected visual or hearing loss

• MRI contraindications, such as foreign metallic implants or a pacemaker

• Known primary neurological disorders, including dementia, stroke, encephalopathy, Parkinson's disease, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, or seizure disorder

• Severe or unstable medical illness, such as a heart attack within the past 3 months, end stage cancer, or conditions or drugs that may cause depression (like systemic steroids or uncorrected hypothyroidism)

• Currently at risk for suicide

• Known allergy or hypersensitivity to escitalopram