Imaging Antidepressant vs. Cognitive Behavior Therapy Effects on Unipolar Depression
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Our goals are 1) to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict which
depressed individuals will respond to different validated treatments for unipolar depression
including Cognitive Therapy (CT) and antidepressant medications (selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors; SSRIs) and 2) to understand whether CT and SSRIs affect similar aspects of brain
function underlying cognition and emotion. Thus, we will examine depressed adults ages 18-55
using fMRI during cognitive and emotional information processing tasks, before and after
treatment with an SSRI (n=25) or CT (n=40). We hypothesize that: 1) Recovery will occur in
treatment with an SSRI primarily for individuals with increased reactivity in limbic brain
regions associated with emotion generation and prefrontal regions associated with
regulation,. 2) Recovery with CT will occur for patients with increased activity in brain
regions associated with emotion generation but decreased activity in prefrontal regions
associated with emotion regulation. 3) Recovery with an SSRI will yield similar changes in
brain function to CT in brain regions associated with emotion generation but less change in
brain regions responsible for emotion regulation such as the prefrontal cortex. Findings from
this study may have a profound impact on reducing the burden of clinical depression by
providing evidenced-based diagnostic and treatment guidelines.
Phase:
Phase 1
Details
Lead Sponsor:
University of Pittsburgh
Collaborators:
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) The Pittsburgh Foundation