Conditions: Depression
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 16
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This research study will examine whether elderly depressed patients whose depressive symptoms do not respond satisfactorily to therapy with a mood stabilizer or antidepressant alone gain any benefit from taking minocycline alone or in addition to their antidepressant or mood stabilizer medication. Minocycline is a commonly used antibiotic medication with anti-inflammatory properties. It is hoped that information gained from this study will help the investigators better understand the role of inflammation in depression, and whether decreasing inflammation will lead to improvement in the symptoms of depression and cognitive function.

Detailed description:
This research study will examine whether elderly depressed patients whose depressive symptoms do not respond satisfactorily to antidepressant therapy alone gain any benefit from taking minocycline alone or in addition to their antidepressants. Minocycline is a commonly used antibiotic medication with anti-inflammatory properties. It is hoped that information gained from this study will help the investigators better understand the role of inflammation in depression, and whether decreasing inflammation will lead to improvement in the symptoms of depression and cognitive function. Elderly patients with depression who remain symptomatic after at least 6 weeks of treatment with an antidepressant medication reaching a therapeutic dosage will be recruited and receive minocycline augmentation for 8 weeks. They may or may not remain on their antidepressants based on their physicians' clinical recommendation. Response to treatment will be measured weekly during the first four weeks and every other week thereafter using rating scales of depressive symptoms, intellectual functions and side effects.

Arms:
arm 1: Open label treatment using minocycline.

Interventions: intervention 1: Minocycline
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Minocycline 100 mg twice daily for 8 weeks

Protocol document: