Depression Clinical Trials in Nashville, TN

This study will investigate whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances the effects of cognitive training in older adults with depression. Read Less

Late-Life Depression (LLD), or depression in older adults, often presents with motivational deficits, deficits in performance in cognitive domains including processing speed and executive dysfunction, and mobility impairments. This triad of findings implicate dopaminergic dysfunction as a core pathophysiologic feature in depression, and may contribute to cognitive decline and motor disability. Normal aging results in brain-wide dopamine declines, decreased D1/D2 receptor density, and loss of dopamine transporters. Although brain changes associated with depression and aging converge on dopamine circuits, the specific disturbances in LLD and how responsive the system is to modulation remain unclear. In this study, investigators are testing integrative model that aging, in concert with pro-inflammatory shifts, decreases dopamine signaling. These signally changes affects behaviors supported by these circuits, in the context of age-associated cortical atrophy and ischemic microvascular changes, resulting in variable LLD phenotypes. Investigators propose a primary pathway where dopaminergic dysfunction in depressed elders contributes to slowed processing speed and mobility impairments that increase the effort cost associated with voluntary behavior. The central hypothesis of this study is that late-life depression is characterized by dysfunction in the dopamine system and, by enhancing dopamine functioning in the brain. By improving cognitive and motor slowing, administration of carbidopa/levodopa (L-DOPA) will improve depressive symptoms. Read Less

Despite experiencing higher rates of depressive symptoms (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020) and similar rates of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 2019), Latino adolescents in the U.S. are significantly less likely than their non-Latino White peers to receive treatment for MDD (SAMHSA, 2019). The purpose of this study is to identify a stakeholder-preferred implementation strategy that may improve psychotherapy attendance among Latino adolescents. Latino adolescent-parent dyads and healthcare providers will be recruited from healthcare settings and social media. Focus groups will be conducted with healthcare providers (n=5), and individual interviews will be conducted with Latino adolescents with a diagnosis of depression (n=15) and their parents (n=15). Read Less

This trial will test the effects of a positive emotion-focused preventive intervention on reward responsiveness in children of mothers with histories of depression and anhedonia. Read Less

Depression in youth is a serious public health concern for which more personalized treatments are needed. This randomized controlled trial will test the effect of an intervention aimed at enhancing social cognitive capacities (e.g., ability to take another's perspective), thereby making treatment of depression in youth more efficient and effective. Participants in the R33 (N=82) will be youth between ages 13- through 17-years-old currently experiencing depression. Youth will be randomized to either an enhanced CBT intervention that teaches social cognitive skills, particularly social perspective taking and theory of mind (CBTSCT) as compared to CBT only. The primary target is improvement in both social cognitive skills and depressive symptoms at post-treatment and at a 6-month follow-up. Read Less

A number of studies from the literature suggest important behavioral, psychosocial, or radiologic changes occur following significant neurologic events or interventions such as stroke, neurosurgery, medications, radiation, systemic therapy, or injury. The purpose of this study is to describe these changes with advanced neurologic imaging and targeted neurologic and neuropsychiatric assessments. This is a non-interventional observational study of minimal risk to participants as there is no medical intervention. The results of this study will be used to inform patients, scientists, and society in the development of future treatments. Read Less

The investigators propose to examine the effects of CSC services delivered via TH (CSC-TH) versus the standard clinic-based CSC model (CSC-SD) on engagement and outcomes in a 12-month, randomized trial. Read Less

The goals of this study are to replicate previous findings of genetic predictors of response to clozapine and other antipsychotic drugs. Read Less