Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the Treatment of Late Life Depression

Summary

This study addresses the unmet medical problem of insufficient treatment of late life depression (LLD). Compared with depression in early adulthood, treatment options of LLD are limited. This trial is the first confirmatory multicentre study to test the efficacy of an LLD-adapted cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program. It will test the hypothesis, that LLD-specific cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is superior to unspecific supportive intervention (SUI) with regard to reducing symptoms of depression over the course of 6 months. Secondary goals are to test the efficacy of LLD-CBT in comparison with SUI on patient reported outcome in major depressive disorders (PRO-MDD), anxiety, cognition, quality of life, overall health status, sleep and global clinical impression.

Conditions

• Late-life Depression
• Major Depressive Disorder
• Major Depressive Episode
• Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Psychotherapy

15-session individually-delivered CBT specific for LLD in comparison with a supportive unspecific intervention (SUI) of the same quantity

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Questionnaires

There will be a total of four assessments (see primary \& secondary endpoints). The first visit of the study will be a screening and baseline (T0) visit. After the baseline assessment, the subjects will be randomized to either of the two treatment arms. Within one week, the first of the successive bi-weekly 50-minute individual face-to-face treatment sessions will be performed by a study therapist. After 7 therapy sessions, the primary and secondary outcomes will be obtained in week 5 (T1) by the blinded rater. This will be followed by the treatment sessions 8 to 15 which will be carried out by the therapist. End-of-treatment primary and secondary outcomes will be obtained in week 10 (T2). The final follow-up assessment (T3) will be performed 6 months after randomization by the blinded rater.

OTHER

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Underlying mechanisms are examined using neuroimaging. MRI data are acquired at four scanning sites and will be performed at baseline, end-of-treatment and follow-up to obtain a high-resolution structural T1-weighted image, a T2-weighted FLAIR image, a resting state fMRI, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the subjects' brain.

OTHER

Blood analysis

Blood sampling will be acquired in order to investigate the underlying mechanisms in LLD and the specific effects of psychotherapy. Blood samples are acquired at five sites at baseline (T0), T1, T2 and T3 for genetic and epigenetic analyses, measurement of Amyloid-β, Neurofilament light chain (NFL), Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs), Metabolomics, Proteomics and miRNA analyses.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Cologne

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Frank Jessen, Prof.Dr. · University of Cologne

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-10-01

Primary Completion

2021-05-11

Completion

2021-05-11

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations