| Methods |
Preliminary results will be presented from a clinical trial and integrated functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study randomising adult outpatients with MDD to 8 weeks of treatment in high vs. low expectancy conditions. Expectancy is measured using items 2 and 4 of the CES, which measure the subject’s expected likelihood and magnitude of improvement, respectively. Subjects are treated for 8 weeks with the study medication and are classified as responders (50% decrease from baseline HRSD) or remitters (HRSD < 7). |
| Participants |
Included patients are men and women aged 18 to 65 years with unipolar MDD (DSM‐IV) and 24‐item HRSD score = 16. |
| Interventions |
Patients are randomised to (1) Placebo‐controlled Track (random assignment to escitalopram or placebo), or (2) Comparator Track (random assignment to escitalopram or citalopram) and are informed of their Track assignment but are blinded to their specific treatment assignment. |
| Outcomes |
Well‐validated fMRI paradigms are used to investigate the activity of neural circuits underlying subjects’ response to emotional stimuli, reward processing, and memory retrieval. |
| Notes |
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