This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.The treatment of depression in the elderly represents a significant clinical problem in that it takes up to twelve weeks of antidepressant treatment to determine whether the medication is working and many patients fail to improve with treatment. The development of a method to identify patients who will not respond to treatment prior to undertaking an extended clinical trial would be a useful clinical tool. In addition, a better understanding of how antidepressant medications work in the brain by studying patients who improve clinically may help in the development of more effective medications. These considerations were the impetus for the present study designed to measure the changes in brain metabolism after a single, intravenous dose of an antidepressant medication (citalopram) and then, during chronic treatment with the oral medication.
The aims of the study are to compare the acute, metabolic response to citalopram in patients to controls and to measure the metabolic effects of chronic citalopram treatment in the patients.
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