Conditions: Depression
Keywords: Depression
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 106
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between brain electrical activity in elderly depressed patients and response to antidepressant medication treatment. Elderly patients with depression will be treated for 12 weeks with an antidepressant medication commonly used in clinical practice called escitalopram (Lexapro). Brain electrical activity will be assessed using electrophysiological tests. Researchers are interested in whether the brain electrical activity of elderly people with depression before they start the medication can tell us who amongst them will improve with antidepressant treatment and to what extent. They will also determine whether patients' brain electrical activity during the 12 weeks of medication treatment will change in any way and whether this change will be linked with a change in the severity of their depression. Researchers hope that information gained from this study will help to better understand the brain processes associated with depression and its successful treatment.

Detailed description:
This research study will examine how the brain electrical activity of elderly depressed patients is related to how quickly and how well they respond to antidepressant medication treatment. Brain electrical activity will be assessed using electrophysiological tests. Elderly patients with depression will be treated for 12 weeks with an antidepressant medication commonly used in clinical practice called escitalopram (Lexapro). Before they start treatment, patients will be asked questions about their depression to measure how severe it is. They will also be asked to have their brain electrical activity recorded while they perform tests on a computer screen. The questions about their depression and the brain electrical recordings will be repeated regularly during the 12 weeks they will be treated with antidepressant medication. The researchers are interested to see whether the brain electrical activity of elderly people with depression before they start the medication can tell us who amongst them and to what extent will finally improve with treatment with escitalopram (Lexapro). They will also determine whether patients' brain electrical activity, during the 12 weeks they will be receiving the medication treatment, will change in any way and whether this change will be linked with the change in the severity of their depression. It is hoped that information gained from this study will help the investigators to better understand the brain processes associated with depression and its successful treatment.

Arms:
arm 1: 12 week open label with 2 week placebo period (14 weeks total)

Interventions: intervention 1: Escitalopram
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 20 mg by mouth daily

Protocol document: