Biomarkers of Antidepressant Resistance (BIORESA)

December 16, 2025 updated by: University Hospital, Tours

Biomarkers of Antidepressant Resistance - BIORESA

According to the WHO, major depressive disorders have become the second worldwide cause of disability. Treatment, long-term medication, leads to frequent resistance (up to 40%).

Establishing a cerebral molecular signature of depression is not feasible in humans (need for cerebral samples). The alternative is to use peripheral biological samples (blood, urine, saliva).

Metabolomic is the integrated and quantitative study of all the metabolites of a biological system. This aims to define the metabolic status of an organism for a particular condition.

Metabolites are derived from biological extracts (cells, tissues, serum, plasma, urine, etc.) and are detected by:

  • liquid or gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS, GC-MS),
  • proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H-NMR). The biomarkers resulting from these studies have become important diagnostic criteria, measured objectively and evaluated as indicators of a normal or pathological state, or even predictors of treatment efficacy.

This approach allows the discovery of biomarkers that best describe the status of a disease for better understanding and are usable in a context of individualized medicine, with effects on clinical practice and management.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

50

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Tours, France, 37044
        • CHU Tours

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 60 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • between 18-60 years-old
  • major depressive disorder, confirmed by Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI)
  • no bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, confirmed by MINI
  • no neurological dementia disease
  • able to perform olfactive tests, i.e. no anosmia and/or allergy to odors
  • score MADRS (Montgomery AsbergDepression Rating Scale) >20
  • no antidepressant treatment during 14 days before inclusion
  • informed written consent
  • affiliation to a social security system

Exclusion Criteria:

  • patient who don't want any antidepressant treatment for this depressive episode
  • legal incapacity and/or any circumstances making the person unable to understand the trial features, purposes or consequences
  • participating to drug clinical study or in exclusion period of clinical study because of previous participation
  • pregnant woman

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Depressive patient
olfactive tests ; blood test ; optional: Tissue Pulsatility imaging ; optional: Collection of faeces
olfactive tests: odor identification, odor discrimination and olfactory threshold
one sample of 4mL
Collection of faeces by patient at home - optional
Ultrasound exploration of brain pulsatility - optional

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
metabolic print of blood
Time Frame: 2 months
Metabolome of blood
2 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
olfactive identification
Time Frame: 2 months
Olfactive response: odor identification
2 months
olfactive discrimination
Time Frame: 2 months
Olfactive response: odor discrimination
2 months
Olfactory threshold
Time Frame: 2 months
Olfactive response: olfactory threshold
2 months
Microbiote of faeces
Time Frame: 2 months
Bacteria of faeces
2 months
Maximal measures of brain pulsatility
Time Frame: 2 months
Maximal brain pulsatility
2 months
Mean measures of brain pulsatility
Time Frame: 2 months
Mean brain pulsatility
2 months
Metabolic print of faces
Time Frame: 2 months
Metabolome of faeces
2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Wissam El-Hage, PhD, CHRU Tours

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 16, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 12, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

January 12, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 10, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 14, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

April 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

December 23, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 16, 2025

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PHAO16-WEH/BIORESA

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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