NCT02811198

Pain, Reward, Attention and Neurocircuitry: Biomarkers of Suicidality

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 97 (actual)
• Sponsor: Unity Health Toronto · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The ultimate aim of this study is to identify a biomarker of suicide risk in MDD by measuring the "hedonic spectrum" (pain and reward responsivity), attention and its associated brain structures using brain scans (fMRI and DTI), as well as the stability of markers over time.

Detailed description

The issue of suicide has continued to puzzle researchers in the field of psychiatry. Edwin Shneidman, a prominent researcher on suicide emphasized "the most evident fact about suicidology and suicidal events is that they are multidimensional…containing concomitant biological, sociological, and psychological (interpersonal and intrapsychic)…elements". Yet, no study to date has attempted to integrate these dimensions when evaluating suicide risk. Considering the presence of a psychiatric illness is a primary predictor of suicide, it is important to develop a unified understanding of risk factors that integrate current clinical and neurobiological findings in this population. Our aim is to: (1) identify an integrated biomarker model to predict risk of suicide attempt in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with and without a history of suicide attempt, using neuroimaging, neurocognitive testing and behavioural tasks, and (2) test the stability of this model using a prospective 1 year design.

Conditions

• Major Depressive Disorder
• Suicide
• Suicidal Ideation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	No intervention

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-01-01
• Primary completion: 2024-12-09
• Completion: 2025-01-30
• First posted: 2016-06-23
• Last updated: 2026-02-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada