Depression Clinical Trials in New York, NY

This study is being done to compare the effectiveness of three different skills trainings to cope with distress. These three trainings are: 1) an attention skills training, 2) an attention and reflective thought skills training, and 3) a health and wellness education training. Read Less

In response to large numbers of senior center clients who suffer untreated depression and the dearth of geriatric mental health providers, the investigators have simplified Behavioral Activation to be delivered by lay volunteers ("Do More, Feel Better"; DMFB). The focus of Behavioral Activation is to guide clients to reengage in daily pleasant and rewarding activities, and reduce depressive symptoms. If the investigators can show that the lay delivery model has positive impact in comparison to MSW-delivered Behavioral Activation, the investigators will have identified an effective intervention that can be used by a large untapped workforce of older adult volunteers across the nation. Read Less

The purpose of this randomized trial is to conduct a fully powered effectiveness trial of video-delivered PROTECT (Tele-PROTECT) compared to a video-delivered depression education (DepEd) control condition to be delivered to 140 English- and Spanish-speaking NYC elder abuse victims. Investigators hypothesize three main aims: 1. Effectiveness Aim: Tele-PROTECT participants will have significantly greater and clinically meaningful reductions in depression when compared to the DepEd control; 2. Abuse Impact Aim: Tele-PROTECT participants will demonstrate greater safety related empowerment compared to DepEd control, which can help participants take steps to reduce risk; 3. Implementation Aim: Stakeholders' views of the factors impacting the implementation of Tele-PROTECT based on characteristics of the intervention, agency setting, and population served will contribute to a national dissemination of Tele-PROTECT Participants will * Receive 9 weeks of tele health psychotherapy delivered by a Master's level mental health clinician from the Weill Cornell Medicine research team. Participants will be assigned to "Tele-PROTECT" or "DepEd" psychotherapy randomly. * Participate in one baseline assessment and four follow-up assessments at weeks 3, 6, 9, and 12 administered by a trained member of the research team. Read Less

Of the estimated 30 million Americans who suffer from Major Depressive Disorder, approximately 10% are considered treatment resistant. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) to a region of the brain called the subcallosal cingulate (SCC) is an emerging strategy for treatment resistant depression (TRD), which involves placement of electrodes in a specific region of the brain and stimulating that area with electricity. This is believed to reset the brain network responsible for symptoms and results in a significant antidepressant response. A series of open-label studies have demonstrated sustained, long-term antidepressant effects in 40-60% of patients who received this treatment. A challenge to the effective dissemination of this fledgling treatment is the absence of biomarkers (objective, measureable indications of the state of the body and brain) to guide device placement and select stimulation parameters during follow-up care. By using a DBS device called the Percept PC (Medtronic, Inc) which has the ability to both deliver stimulation to and record electrical signals directly from the brain, this study aims to identify changes in local field potentials (LFPs), specific electrical signals that are thought to represent how the brain communicates information from one region to another, to see how this relates to DBS parameter settings and patient depressive symptomatology. The goal of this study is to study LFPs before and during active DBS stimulation to identify changes that correlate with the antidepressant effects of SCC DBS. The study team will recruit 10 patients with TRD and implant them with the Percept PC system. Participants will be asked to complete short questionnaires and collect LFP data twice daily for the first year of the study, as well as have weekly in person research procedures and assessments with the study team for up to one year. These include meetings with the study psychiatrist, psychologist, symptom ratings, and movement, voice, and video recordings. A brief discontinuation experiment will be conducted after 6 months of stimulation, in which the stimulation will be turned off and patterns of LFP changes will be recorded. The entire study is expected to last about 5 years, parcellated into several study phases. All participants are required to live in the New York metropolitan area for the first several months of the study. Read Less

Addressing health disparities, especially in the face of coronavirus pandemic, requires an integrated multi-sector equity-focused, community-based approach. This study will examine the impact of Harlem Strong Community Mental Health Collaborative, a community-wide multi-sectoral coalition in which a health insurer works with a network of community-based organizations, medical providers, and behavioral health providers to engage in a network-wide implementation planning process to: (1) problem-solve financing, access, and quality of care barriers, (2) support capacity building for mental health (MH) task-sharing for community health workers, (3) facilitate coordination and collaboration across MH/behavioral health, primary care, and a range of social services, including case management, housing supports, financial education, employment support, and other community resources to improve linkages to services, and (4) identify a set of common MH, social risk, and health metrics and strategies to integrate these metrics into data systems across the network for continuous quality improvement of the system. The long-term goal of our study is to develop sustainable model for task-sharing MH care that will be embedded in a coordinated comprehensive network of services, including primary care, behavioral/MH, social services, and other community resources. Read Less

The investigators propose addressing and evaluating the efficacy of a behavioral, contingency management app by conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will evaluate the app compared to a placebo app control group. Participants will be randomly assigned to immediate intervention using the treatment condition or to a placebo app condition. Participants will not know which condition they are assigned to until after the study completion; they will also not know that they are using the treatment app until after the study completion. The sample will consist of 100 families of school-age children (ages 6-12) who display significant behavioral problems. The treatment app is a task management platform containing a self-directed rewards system through which caregivers can assign token rewards to their children for completing routine tasks (e.g., cleaning their room, completing homework). Participants in the placebo app condition will have a similar user experience, however, tokens are assigned non-contingently (dispensed daily, rather than based on task completion). While participants will not be required to complete any tasks or behaviors in the app as part of their participation in the study, they will be asked to use the app at least once per day for 8 weeks. Given the self-directed nature of the treatment app (parents decide how frequently they access the app-based rewards system and how many tasks they assign to their child), parent involvement in the intervention will vary slightly in duration. However, based on the literature and routine practice, we anticipate parents will log in at least once a day to assign tasks to their child and follow up on completed rewards. Assessments (see details below) will occur at baseline, weekly during the intervention, and at the end of the study. The study will take about 8 weeks in total to complete once participants have been enrolled in the app. Read Less

This research study is studying how thoughts, feelings, surroundings, and individual biology may contribute to why and how people experience anxiety or depression. We are trying to find out the wide variety of reasons that people may experience anxiety or depression, and why different people are helped by different forms of treatment. We are trying to determine why people stay in treatment, and what factors contribute to a positive or negative response to treatment. These reasons may be due to thoughts, feelings, beliefs, personality, biology, social support network, life events, and barriers to treatment. A wide range of information about factors that impact anxiety and depression will be included. These include, among others, measures of inflammation, hormone levels, behavior, spoken language, personality, medical history, social determinants of health, and attitudes toward mental health and its treatment. The study involves psychological and psychiatric treatments in the form of psychotherapy and medication management. The participant will be asked to set specific goals for study treatment, and to provide videos between sessions about relevant medication, emotional, and sleep factors in their life. In summary, this study will collect biological, psychological, and social factors that may play a role in anxiety and depression. This will inform both individual's diagnosis and treatment and will be used in a later set of analyses that can inform diagnosis and treatment for other individuals who share similar characteristics. Read Less