Stress system dynamics in childhood trauma-related depressio

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Recruiting

Sex: Not specified

Target Recruitment: 120

Inclusion Criteria

General inclusion criteria:
- Mastery of Dutch language
- Age of >= 18 years
- Willingness and ability to give written informed consent
- Normal or corrected-to-normal vision

Additional inclusion criteria for the patient groups (i.e., MDD+CT and MDD-CT):
- Moderate to severe depression
- Score >= 26 on the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms-Self Report
(IDS-SR) (Rush et al., 2000)
- DSM-5 diagnosis of major depression disorder (MDD), confirmed with clinical
interview (MINI (Sheehan et al., 1997))

Additional inclusion criteria for the MDD+CT group:
- Moderate to severe childhood trauma (CT) before the age of 18
- Score above validated cut-off for moderate to severe CT using the
Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) (Bernstein et al., 1994):

Exclusion Criteria

General exclusion criteria:
- Speech impairments
- Other lifetime severe psychiatric comorbidity (bipolar disorder, psychotic
disorder) or current alcohol/drug dependence
- Primary diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or Acute Stress
Disorder (ASD)
- Lifetime diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD)
- Any acute somatic or acute endocrine disease (e.g., acute asthma)
- Taking any medication known to influence endocrine systems
- Chronic benzodiazepine use (and sporadic use on the days of the lab visits)
- Neurological disorder
- Known contraindications for MRI investigations, such as the presence of metal
objects (e.g., pacemaker, arteriovenous clips) or severe claustrophobia.

Additional exclusion criteria for healthy controls and MDD-CT patients:
- Moderate to severe childhood trauma (CT) before the age of 18
- Score above validated cut-off for moderate to severe CT using CTQ
(see cutoff scores
above)

Additional exclusion criteria for healthy controls:
- Past or present psychiatric condition.

Study & Design

Study Type: Interventional

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>The main study parameters are the laboratory stress system dynamics measured by<br /><br>resting state brain function directly (0 - 40 minutes) and later (60-100<br /><br>minutes) after the stress (TSST) or control (placebo-TSST) test. </p><br>

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>Secondary study parameters are stress system dynamics measured through<br /><br>task-related fMRI activity and behavior, endocrine responses during stress,<br /><br>perceived stress and anxiety during stress, and (psycho)physiological<br /><br>responses, as well as daily life stress reactivity, including physiological and<br /><br>psychological measures, measured by ecological momentary and physiological<br /><br>assessment. </p><br>