The Brain Dynamics Centre - Convenor of BRAINnet

Depression

Background

Depression is ranked second only to ischemic heart disease in terms of societal and economic burden of disease. In Australia, it has been estimated that depression costs our economy $3.3 billion in lost productivity each year, highlighting the urgent need for valid markers of the illness and successful treatment.

Objectives

The aims of our research are to a) identify a profile of markers from clinical, psychometric, psychophysiological, neuroimaging and genetic measures which most sensitively dissociate depression from healthy peers and b) to evaluate the effects of antidepressant treatment on these markers.

Our unit is currently undertaking an International Study to Predict Optimized Treatment - in Depression (iSPOT-D), the largest biomarker study ever undertaken in MDD.

CURRENT PROJECTS:

Attentional impairment in depression: Impact of sub-type

Emotion perception in depression: An ERP and LORETA study

Neuropsychology of depression: Impact of depression severity, subtype, comorbidity and antidepressant treatment

Electroencephalography of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder: A direct test of the approach-withdrawal model

Meta-analysis of heart rate variability in depression: Impact of depression severity, subtype, comorbidity and antidepressant treatment

Neurobiological bases for depression and anxiety: Towards an integrative model of emotion disorders

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

Predictors of response to cognitive behavioural therapy in major depressive disorder

RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

• Kemp AH, Gray MA, Silverstein RB, Armstrong SM & Nathan PJ (2004) Augmentation of seratonin enhances pleasant and suppresses unpleasant electrophysiological responses to visual emotional stimuli in humans. Neuroimage, 22(3), 1084-1096

DEPRESSION TEAM