In summary, the investigators propose to integrate fMRI assessments within a clinical trial
of quetiapine XR in patients with melancholic depression in order to test the predictions
that:
1. quetiapine XR treatment will be effective and safe for patients with major depression
with melancholic features
2. successful treatment with quetiapine XR will be associated with normalization of limbic
areas associated with increased salivary cortisol response to a stressful task as well
as normalization on the emotional faces task differences in the melancholic group
compared with healthy volunteers.
3. successful treatment with quetiapine XR will be associated with normalization of the
salivary cortisol response to the stressful math task (i.e. there will be a diminished
post-treatment mean AUC for cortisol secretion after the stress task compared to the
pre-treatment AUC values in the patient group)