Neuroimaging for Depression
| Status: | Archived |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Depression |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Psychiatry / Psychology |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | Any |
| Updated: | 7/1/2011 |
| Start Date: | September 2010 |
| End Date: | December 2011 |
Objective Detection, Evaluation and Countermeasures for In-flight Depression
The investigators seek to determine whether brain imaging techniques can be used to help
detect depression, assess its severity, and/or monitor or predict responses to treatment.
Subjects with minor or major depression will be randomly assigned to a wait-list control
group or to treatment with a new computer-based cognitive behavior therapy developed by Dr.
James Cartriene. Brain imaging will be performed before and during treatment using both
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The investigators
hypothesize that brain activity, particularly in the lateral frontal areas of the brain,
will provide biomarkers for depression, depression severity, and treatment response.
Depression can significantly disrupt one's ability to function effectively and efficiently,
and the associated performance deficits can seriously jeopardize space mission success. The
incidence of serious depression in Earth based analogues of the spaceflight environment has
been reported as up to 13% per person per year. Extrapolating from existing reports of
depressive episodes during short-duration spaceflight, depression is thus a probable
condition in one or more members of a five to seven person crew during a long duration
spaceflight (e.g., a 30 month mission to Mars). Mission success can be jeopardized by
depression either directly, from the potentially life threatening consequences of lapses in
performance, or indirectly, by adding to the workload and stress of other crewmembers. The
likelihood and potentially serious consequences of depression during spaceflight explains
why the risk of human performance failure due to mood alterations such as depression,
anxiety, or other psychiatric and cognitive problems is a Priority 1 risk for all mission
types (International Space Station, Moon, Mars). Certain countermeasures are already in
place: medications and psychological consultations with ground-crews. However, current
in-flight methods to decide whether a countermeasure should be used rely heavily on
subjective self-reports. The biological basis of mood disorders suggests neural biomarkers
may provide a more objective method for assessing depression. Aim 1 of this proposal,
therefore, seeks to identify neural biomarkers sensitive to, and specific for, depression.
These measures will be used in evaluating and validating a flight-capable, noninvasive
neuroimaging technology (near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging, or NIRS imaging) for its
ability to detect biomarkers of depression and its severity. As an initial step towards
developing novel select-out criteria, Aim 2 will then evaluate which neural biomarkers
appear most promising in detecting an endophenotype that identifies individuals at
heightened risk for treatment resistance. Finally, when depression is objectively
identified, an appropriate countermeasure needs to be selected. Aim 3 will focus on the
ability of brain imaging to help predict the efficacy of Dr. Cartriene's computer based
problem solving therapy.
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