Predictors of Response to Antidepressants: Utility of Behavioural, Neuroimaging and Genetics Data

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/464863

Funding Status
Closed

Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the .

Funded Activity Summary

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is projected to cause the second greatest global burden of disease by 2020, highlighting the urgent need for valid predictors of effective treatment response. Currently, there are no accurate predictors of response to antidepressants in MDD, and successful treatment relies greatly on 'trial and error'. This process is demanding on health resources, and may be a factor in the high suicide rates in depressed patients. Previous research on treatment response has been limited by recruitment of small, heterogeneous patient samples, lack of placebo control, and a failure to examine task related activity in brain imaging studies. Perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of research that aims to predict treatment response to antidepressant medications is the use of commonly used outcome measures such as the Hamilton Rating Depression Scale (HAM-D), which were developed long before current classification systems of depression came into use. The US Federal Drug Administration has recently identified what they call a translational gap such that behavioural and biological measures are the most robust for detection of disorders such as depression, yet these measures remain to be translated into clinical tools that can be used to evaluate treatment. The aim of the current study therefore is to determine whether genetic variability is related to treatment outcome as defined by a more objective outcome measure (facial expression perception) using a randomised controlled design. The study will also determine whether brain measures (fMRI, EEG) enhance the prediction of SSRI response to both clinical and behavioural measures, over and above the genetic contribution.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $310,071.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Neurogenetics

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

antidepressants | emotion | integrative neuroscience | major depressive disorder | neuroimaging | psychiatry | treatment response

Related Links