Brain Aging and Treatment Response in Geriatric Depression

October 11, 2019 updated by: Helen Lavretsky, MD, University of California, Los Angeles

Treatment of Geriatric Depression With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Double-blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Namenda (Memantine) Augmentation of Lexapro (Escitalopram) in Depressed Patients at Least 60 Years of Age

The proposed project will evaluate the role of neuroimaging biomarkers of brain aging (i.e., neurodegenerative and vascular brain changes) and mild cognitive impairment in the patterns of treatment response to memantine combined with escitalopram compared to escitalopram and placebo.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study is designed to conduct a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of Namenda (Memantine) as an augmentation to Lexapro (Escitalopram) in depressed older adults 60 years of age and older. Throughout the course of the study, the investigators anticipate screening about 400 subjects to recruit 134 participants in the first four years. This study will require that the subjects complete up to 20 (twenty) visits in 12 (twelve) months to the study site during their participation. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Namenda (memantine) when taken in combination with Lexapro (escitalopram), may improve the quality of treatment response by making it faster and more complete, and also by improving thinking and memory in comparison to Lexapro taken with a placebo. Enrolled subjects will be provided with 10-20 mg of escitalopram for 12 months, and concurrently randomly assigned to either memantine or placebo groups. The investigators will also examine the safety and tolerability (how well the treatment works and the side effects) of a combination of Namenda and Lexapro as compared to placebo and Lexapro in subjects with major depressive disorder and mild cognitive impairment who are at least 60 years of age. Memantine is likely to accelerate and enhance antidepressant response to escitalopram and improve cognitive performance. Subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment or biomarkers of brain aging at baseline are likely to have preferential response to the combination of memantine and escitalopram compared to escitalopram and placebo, thus identifying a more personalized treatment approach in the high-risk subgroups for poor clinical outcomes.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

115

Phase

  • Phase 4

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

  • United States
    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
        • UCLA Semel Institute - Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI)

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

60 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Meets the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria for major depressive disorder (recurrent and nonrecurrent course will be identified)
  • Score of 16 or higher on the 24-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HDRS) at study entry
  • Score of 24 or higher on the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE)
  • Age 60 years old or older

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of psychiatric illness or a substance abuse disorder other than unipolar depression, diagnosed prior to the onset of the first depressive episode
  • Presence of psychotic symptoms
  • Severe or acute medical illness (e.g., major surgery, metastatic cancer, stroke, heart attack) 6 months prior to study entry
  • Acute suicidal or violent behavior or history of suicide attempt within the year prior to study entry
  • Presence of delirium, neurodegenerative dementia, Parkinson's disease, or any other central nervous system (CNS) diseases
  • Toxic or metabolic abnormalities on laboratory examination
  • Medications taken or medical illnesses present that could account for depression
  • Active heart failure categorized as Class III or greater according to New York Heart Association criteria
  • Heart attack or crescendo angina within the 3 months prior to study entry
  • Symptomatic cardiac arrhythmias or symptomatic, hemodynamically significant mitral or aortic valvular disease
  • Resting heart rate less than 50 beats per minute and a corrected QT (QTc) interval greater than 0.45 seconds
  • Second or third degree atrioventricular block
  • Systolic blood pressure greater than 180 mmHg or less than 90 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure greater than 105 mmHg or less than 50 mmHg at study entry
  • Treated with depot neuroleptic therapy within 6 months prior to study entry
  • Treated with any neuroleptic, antidepressant, anxiolytic medication (other than lorazepam), or over-the-counter CNS-active medications used for treatment of depression (e.g, St. John's Wort, kava-kava, melatonin) within 2 weeks (4 weeks for fluoxetine or monoamine-oxidase inhibitors [MAOIs]) prior to the first administration of study medication
  • Known allergy to escitalopram or memantine or history of ineffective treatment with escitalopram or memantine for current depressive episode
  • Requires concomitant therapy with any prescription or over-the-counter medications that have potentially dangerous interactions with either escitalopram or memantine
  • Requires electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or received ECT within 3 months prior to study entry
  • Initiated psychotherapy within 3 months prior to study entry or will be initiating or terminating psychotherapy during the study

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Escitalopram and Memantine
Participants will take a combination of Escitalopram and Memantine for 12 months
Drug: Escitalopram
All subjects will receive 10 to 20mg of escitalopram open-label throughout the trial. Participants will begin taking one 10mg capsule once per day, and this dosage may be increased or decreased depending on the participant's response to the medication. Participants will continue on their assigned dosage of escitalopram until treatment completion.
Other Names:
  • Lexapro
Drug: Memantine
Memantine dosage will be 5 to 20mg a day. Participants will initially take one 5mg capsule once a day, which will be gradually increased to a maximum of 10mg capsules twice per day.
Other Names:
  • Namenda
Active Comparator: Escitalopram and placebo
Participants will take a combination of Escitalopram and placebo for 12 months
Drug: Escitalopram
All subjects will receive 10 to 20mg of escitalopram open-label throughout the trial. Participants will begin taking one 10mg capsule once per day, and this dosage may be increased or decreased depending on the participant's response to the medication. Participants will continue on their assigned dosage of escitalopram until treatment completion.
Other Names:
  • Lexapro
Drug: Placebo
Placebo pills will be taken in combination with the active Namenda (Memantine) pills. Participants will initially take 1 capsule per day, which will be increased to a maximum of 1 capsule twice per day.
Other Names:
  • inactive substance

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Hamilton Depression Rating Scale
Time Frame: Measured at 3 months; 6 months and 12 months
Clinician administered scale measures severity of depressive symptoms. This measure includes 24 items. Response options vary item to item and include the following ranges: [0-2], [0-3], and [0-4]. A score of 0 suggests absence of symptoms and/or difficulties and higher scores represent more severe difficulties. Possible overall score range [0-74], higher scores representing more severe difficulties.
Measured at 3 months; 6 months and 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale
Time Frame: Measured at 3 months; 6 months and 12 months
Clinician administered item scale measures severity of depressive symptoms. The 10 items are measured on a 7-point scale ranging from 0 to 6; creating a total range of 0-60. A score of 0 suggests absence of symptoms and higher scores represent greater severity of depression.Severity gradations for the MADRS have been proposed (9-17 = mild, 18-34 = moderate, and ≥ 35 = severe). Treatment remission is defined as an endpoint total score ≤ 10.
Measured at 3 months; 6 months and 12 months
Change in Cognitive Domain Scores
Time Frame: Measured at 6 months and 12 months
Neuropsychological battery of tests which included the following domains: learning, delayed recall, and executive functioning. Raw scores were transformed to z-scores for each test score of interest for each participant, and then averaged. These z-scores were averaged within each neuropsychological domain to produce composite scores and then averaged over all tests to calculate a global performance score. Higher scores are indicative of better performance.
Measured at 6 months and 12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Participants With Adverse Events
Time Frame: Measured at 3, 6 months and 12 months
The UKU (Udvalg for Kliniske Undersogelser) Side Effect Rating Scale organizes symptoms into 4 categories (i.e., Psychic, Neurologic, Autonomic, Other) containing 8-19 symptoms each. Each symptom receives a score for degree and causal relationship. Degree is scored between 0-3 with higher scores being more severe. Causal relationship is scored as improbable, possible, or probable.
Measured at 3, 6 months and 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Helen Lavretsky, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles

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.

General Publications

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)

October 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 23, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

January 23, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 31, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 15, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

July 17, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 15, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 11, 2019

Last Verified

October 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R-01 MH097892
  • R01MH097892 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

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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