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Mood DisordersNCT00397111

Development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Techniques for Studying Mood and Anxiety Disorders

An observational study of Mood Disorders and Anxiety Disorders, run by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at 1 site in United States.

Recruiting

Looking for participants now. Contact the study team or a site below to ask about taking part.

Sites and contacts
Official record
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Trial summary

This study is intended to help develop new MRI imaging techniques for studying mood and anxiety disorders. Researchers believe that depression and anxiety disorders may cause structural and functional changes in the brain. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 to 65 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders
What is being tested?
7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner
Type of treatment
Medical device
How many people
390 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
6 Dec 2006to not given
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
Not yet: the study is under way

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 to 65 years
  • All sexes
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult, Older adult

Study population: Adult healthy volunteers and individuals with major depressive disorder will be recruited from the general population.

Who may be able to join

  • Healthy Controls
  • Male and female subjects between 18 and 65 years of age
  • Subjects must be able to give written informed consent prior to participation in this study.
  • Subjects who do not currently meet and have never met criteria for any major psychiatric disorder, and who have no known first degree relatives with mood disorders.
  • For cognitive experiments utilizing language stimuli only native English speakers will be enrolled.
  • Major Depressive Disorder
Show all 11Show fewer
  • Male and female subjects between 18 and 65 years of age.
  • Subjects have been found eligible for other ETPB research protocols according to 01-M-0254.
  • Subjects must fulfill DSM-IV or V criteria for Major Depression based on clinical assessment and confirmed by a structured diagnostic interview (SCID-P).
  • Subjects must be able to give written informed consent prior to participation in this study.
  • For cognitive experiments utilizing language stimuli, only native English speakers will be enrolled.

Who cannot join

  • Healthy Control
  • Subjects with major medical or neurological disorders expected to influence cerebral blood flow or morphology, or taking any medication that is likely to influence the imaging parameters-of-interest within 3 weeks of scanning.
  • Women who are pregnant are excluded from the study. Subjects will undergo pregnancy testing no more than 24 hours prior to MRI scanning.
  • Subjects with contraindication to MRI scanning such as aneurysm clips, implanted neural stimulator, implanted cardiac pacemaker or auto-defibrillator, cochlear implant, or ocular foreign body.
  • A history of drug or alcohol abuse within 1 year or a lifetime history of drug or alcohol dependence (DSM-IV) or alcohol use disorder (DSM-V equivalent).
  • Major Depressive Disorder
Show all 12Show fewer
  • Presence of Axis 1 psychiatric diagnosis other than Major Depression or an Axis 2 disorder
  • Subjects with major medical or neurological disorders expected to influence cognitive function or are taking any drugs likely to affect mood or cognitive function within 1 week of study participation. Depressed subjects will not be tapered/withdrawn from medications under this study.
  • A history of drug or alcohol abuse within 1 year or a lifetime history of drug or alcohol dependence (DSM-IV) or alcohol use disorder (DSM-V equivalent).
  • Subjects with major medical or neurological disorders expected to influence cerebral blood flow or morphology.
  • Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding will be excluded from MRI portions of the study. Subjects will undergo pregnancy testing no more than 24 hours prior to MRI scanning.
  • Subjects with contraindication to MRI scanning such as aneurysm clips, implanted neural stimulator, implanted cardiac pacemaker or auto-defibrillator, cochlear implant, or ocular foreign body.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

Allison C Nugent, Ph.D. contact

(301) 451-8863

moodresearch@mail.nih.gov

United States1 site, 1 recruiting
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

    Bethesda, Maryland, 20892

    Recruiting

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Development of Functional and Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Techniques for the Study of Mood and Anxiety Disorders

This study is intended to help develop new MRI imaging techniques for studying mood and anxiety disorders. Researchers believe that depression and anxiety disorders may cause structural and functional changes in the brain. This study will optimize the way MRI scans are collected to look at brain structure and examine how the brain behaves while subjects perform particular tasks. Healthy volunteers and individuals with major depressive disorder may be eligible for this study.

Participants undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological testing. : Individuals will be asked to participate in an MRI study on one of several scanners. The scanner used will measure blood flow in the brain, concentrations of certain chemicals in the brain, or magnetic properties of the brain. The scan may involve They watching a screen presenting images or doing a task in which they respond to pictures or sounds. Participants may be asked to return for additional scans.

The study also involves neuropsychological tests, which assess cognitive performance. Often, people with mood disorders have subtle changes in performance on these tests that allow researchers to pinpoint where brain abnormalities occur. Before the tests can be used in patients, they must be validated by using healthy subjects. These tests are presented either orally, in written form, or on a computer....

Read the detailed description

Objective

A major component of understanding the pathogenesis of mood and anxiety disorders is expected to involve elucidation of abnormalities in brain structure and function associated with these conditions. Historically post-mortem histopathological and neurochemical assessments constituted the primary methods for investigating abnormalities of brain structure and function in psychiatric disorders. However, the significance of the results from such studies has been limited by the relatively poor availability of specimens from subjects with mood and anxiety disorders who had been unmedicated and clinically well-characterized antemortem. By allowing for in vivo human studies, medical imaging technologies provide efficient, accurate, and non-invasive alternatives for characterizing brain structure and function. The recent rapid development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, in particular, has provided powerful tools for assessing a wide range of cerebral physiological and morphological characteristics. To optimally exploit the potential of these rapidly evolving MRI scanning and hardware capabilities in investigations of mood and anxiety disorders, new techniques and applications must be developed and tested. The technical development protocol proposed herein will assess new imaging techniques and hardware, and will develop novel cognitive tasks for application in the study of mood and anxiety disorders. The primary objective of this protocol is the development of MRI experiments for characterizing the physiological correlates of mood and anxiety disorders. In addition, the pilot projects encompassed within this protocol involve the optimization of existing MRI pulse sequences, the application of new pulse sequences for structural and functional MR imaging, and the development of new functional MRI (fMRI) tasks that can elucidate neural function within the cognitive-behavioral domains affected in mood and anxiety disorders. This protocol will also allow testing of existing imaging hardware that can increase the spatial resolution, contrast, and sensitivity of MR images. Such hardware includes the use of multi-channel radio frequency (RF) coils and patient monitoring equipment. Development of these techniques and applications will directly enhance the sensitivity and specificity of MRI studies of mood and anxiety disorders.

Study Population

This study will involve 300 healthy volunteers and 90 patients with major depressive disorder.

Design

This technical development protocol will assess new imaging techniques and hardware, and will develop novel cognitive tasks for application in the study of mood and anxiety disorders. Subjects will have the option to participate in one or several procedures conducted under this protocol, including fMRI, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), Magnetoencephalography (MEG), behavioral tasks, and rating scales.

Outcome Measures

Primary outcome measures on neuropsychological tests will include parameters such as accuracy and reaction time. Secondary outcome measures will include differences in reaction time or accuracy between different testing conditions. Outcome measures from MRI scanning sessions will include signal-to-noise ratio, contrast-to-noise ratio, structural volumes, metabolite concentrations (in the case of MRS), relaxation times (in the case of relaxometry), and BOLD time series (in the case of fMRI).

Being tested
7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner
Keywords
Morphometry, BOLD, fMRI, Spectrometry, Relaxometry, Natural History, Healthy Volunteer, HV
Medical subject headings
Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • 7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scannerDevice

    Non-significant risk device used for brain imaging

Study groups in NCT00397111
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Healthy VolunteerHealthy Volunteer/control group
Receives: Device: 7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner
Major Depressive DisorderIndividuals with Major Depressive Disorder
Receives: Device: 7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. BOLD time series

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  2. Structural volumes

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  3. Accuracy

    Neuropsychological testing data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  4. Contrast-to-noise ratio

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  5. Signal-to-noise ratio

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  6. Relaxation times

    Reflexometry data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  7. Metabolite concentrations

    Magnetoencephalography data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  8. Reaction time

    Neuropsychological testing data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

Secondary outcomes (2)
  1. Reaction time between testing conditions

    Neuropsychological testing data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

  2. Accuracy between testing conditions

    Neuropsychological testing data

    Measured: Varies based on experiment

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted8 Nov 2006 (estimated)
  2. Study start6 Dec 2006

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Other
Enrolment
390 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00397111
Sponsor's protocol ID
070021
Other IDs
07-M-0021
Status last verified
1 Oct 2026
First submitted
7 Nov 2006
Last updated
5 Nov 2026
Results posted
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
Yes: Clinical, demographic, and phenotype participant data collected during the trial, after deidentification.

Publications

  • Drevets WC, Price JL, Simpson JR Jr, Todd RD, Reich T, Vannier M, Raichle ME. Subgenual prefrontal cortex abnormalities in mood disorders. Nature. 1997 Apr 24;386(6627):824-7. doi: 10.1038/386824a0.

    PubMed 9126739
  • Drevets WC, Ongur D, Price JL. Neuroimaging abnormalities in the subgenual prefrontal cortex: implications for the pathophysiology of familial mood disorders. Mol Psychiatry. 1998 May;3(3):220-6, 190-1. doi: 10.1038/sj.mp.4000370.

    PubMed 9672897
  • Drevets WC. Neuroimaging and neuropathological studies of depression: implications for the cognitive-emotional features of mood disorders. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2001 Apr;11(2):240-9. doi: 10.1016/s0959-4388(00)00203-8.

    PubMed 11301246
  • Lamontagne SJ, Gilbert JR, Zabala PK, Waldman LR, Zarate CA Jr, Ballard ED. Clinical, behavioral, and electrophysiological profiles along a continuum of suicide risk: evidence from an implicit association task. Psychol Med. 2024 May;54(7):1431-1440. doi: 10.1017/S0033291723003331. Epub 2023 Nov 24.

    PubMed 37997749
  • Lally N, An L, Banerjee D, Niciu MJ, Luckenbaugh DA, Richards EM, Roiser JP, Shen J, Zarate CA Jr, Nugent AC. Reliability of 7T (1) H-MRS measured human prefrontal cortex glutamate, glutamine, and glutathione signals using an adapted echo time optimized PRESS sequence: A between- and within-sessions investigation. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2016 Jan;43(1):88-98. doi: 10.1002/jmri.24970. Epub 2015 Jun 7.

    PubMed 26059603

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Mood Disorders and Anxiety Disorders, run by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 11 inclusion and 12 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 5 Nov 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Allison C Nugent, Ph.D. ((301) 451-8863, moodresearch@mail.nih.gov), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

BOLD time series (time frame: Varies based on experiment). The study lists 8 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00397111, which also lists 5 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 5 Nov 2026.

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