King's College London

This study has completed recruitment 

What is the project about?

For many people with depression, the antidepressants most usually prescribed by GPs are only somewhat helpful. There is an urgent need to improve the treatment of depression by providing better advice about the choices of antidepressant medications available.

Study 3 – fMRI to predict treatment response: recruitment via selected GP surgeries and this website

Finding a treatment for depression that works is currently based on trial and error, because some treatments work for some individuals, but not others. The aim of this study is to find better ways to predict how well a treatment works for a particular person (i.e. predicts response to treatment). We have previously found some psychological tests and brain scans that could be useful in predicting response to treatment. So far, no one has combined these to see whether they could be practically useful in the NHS.

What would you have to do?

Participate in an initial clinical and neurocognitive assessment, followed by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) session at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). After you have reviewed your treatment for depression, we would invite you for a final assessment, about four months after your initial session.

For more details, visit the fMRI study page.

Other project – virtual reality study: recruitment via this website

We are recruiting participants with depression to participate in a virtual reality (VR) study. The aim of this study is to find better ways to predict how well a treatment works for a particular person using novel cognitive assessments. Participants in this study need to complete some online questionnaires and the VR assessment at their home or at our lab at King’s College London.

For more details, visit the VR study page. 

Control subjects

We need volunteers who never had depression to compare psychological tests and brain scans with those who are suffering from depression. We have previously found some psychological tests and brain scans that could be useful in predicting response to treatment. So far, we have not established how people without depression do on these tests.

For more details, please visit the fMRI study page or the VR study page. 

Other studies, recruitment stopped:

Study 1 – Decision support tool GPs; recruitment exclusively via selected GP surgeries

This study will test whether tailored recommendations for specific other antidepressants can be helpful to GPs and have the potential to improve depression. These recommendations will be delivered by an Antidepressant Advisor tool which we have developed for this purpose. The tool is integrated into the GP’s existing computer software.

We have recently published the protocol for this study: Study protocol for the antidepressant advisor (ADeSS): a decision support system for antidepressant treatment for depression in UK primary care: a feasibility study.

Study 2 – Mobile app; recruitment via this website

The aim of this research project is to better predict who will benefit from a specific treatment of depression using information collected via a mobile app and to determine whether the mobile app is helpful for people with mood disorders (study 2).