Short-term Cognitive Training in Late-life Depression

Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Cognitive training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01748032

12-28

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the alternative uses training (AUT) and word association training (WAT) on cognitive functions and mood symptoms in late-life depression (LLD).

The hypotheses are:

1. post-training cognitive performance will be superior to pre-training cognitive performance
2. post-training depressive symptomatology will be less severe as compared with pre-training clinical severity and
3. AUT group will show better post-training cognitive performance and improved mood symptoms when compared with the WAT group.

Enrollment: 6 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 55+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female
• Age >=55
• Proficiency in English
• Current depressive episode and meet criteria for DSM-IV major depressive disorder
• Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score >=15
• Able to give informed consent
• Stable medication dosages during the training period

Exclusion criteria

• Other DSM-IV Axis I psychiatric disorders, except for anxiety disorders due to high comorbidity with mood disorders
• Mini-Mental State Examination score of <26
• Diagnosis of dementia
• Neurological and medical conditions known to affect cognition (e.g., stroke, head injury, previous chemotherapy for cancer)
• Unstable medical illnesses requiring active treatment
• Vision or hearing impairment affecting ability to participate in training

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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6 participants in 2 patient groups

Alternative Uses Training

Other group

Description:

In this task, subjects are asked to produce atypical and alternative uses for common daily objects.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive training

Word Association Training

Other group

Description:

In this task, subjects are asked to generate the first word that comes to their mind, and thus, encourages more general and spontaneous divergent thinking.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive training