Project Summary

Ian H. Gotlib, Ph.D. (Distinguished Investigator 2003) of Stanford University, will conduct a study on major depressive disorder based on results he obtained from an NIMH-funded study in which physiological and imaging data suggested that depressed persons “shut down” when presented with stimuli designed to elicit positive or negative emotions.  Also, within the same group, the less reaction (as defined by the physiological and imaging data) exhibited towards the stimulus (emotional films), the poorer the outcome six months later, regardless of the initial severity of depressive symptoms or depression history.  He is now studying currently non-depressed daughters (aged 9 - 14) of depressed mothers and a control group comprised of non-depressed daughters (within the same age range) of non-depressed mothers.  As a group, about 40% of the offspring of depressed mothers will develop depression.  His current study is focusing on determining possible risk factors for depression in the daughters, to enable prediction of the development of a psychiatric disorder in the daughters.  He has created an experiment similar to one described previously which will assess emotional activation and de-activation in reaction to induced happy and sad moods.  Dr. Gotlib will utilize his NARSAD funding to increase the number of participants in his study and subsequently increase his pilot data, which he will use to make application to NIMH for external funding.  He also plans to add two control groups of girls one with girls diagnosed with depression and another of girls with never-disordered mothers.  He will conduct analyses over intervals and will examine markers of risk for psychiatric disorders.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Depression (Unipolar)\Child/Adolescent

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