NCT04838262

Stress and the Sympathetic Nervous System in Adults With Depression

Daily Stress Processes and Sympathetic Reactivity in Depression

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 94 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Delaware · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 30 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

To test our hypotheses, we will enroll healthy adults having no history of mood disorders and adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) having a broad range of depressive symptom severity. After screening, subjects will meet with the research coordinator or an investigator for a discussion, with opportunity for questions, before applicable consent forms are obtained. Daily stress processes will be assessed using an ecological momentary assessment approach for 8 consecutive days. On the last day of the daily stress assessment, we will directly measure muscle sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure, and heart rate during acute laboratory-based cognitive, emotional, and physiological interventions to induce a stress response. A venous blood sample will be taken for measurements of metabolic and renal health and systemic inflammation. Aim 1: To examine the effect of daily psychosocial stressor exposure on acute sympathetic stress reactivity in MDD. Two stressor exposure indicators will be calculated: stressor frequency (i.e., percentage of interview days during which at least one stressor occurred) and total stress (i.e., total number of stressors reported across all interview days) and will be related to the magnitude of responsiveness to the acute stress interventions. We hypothesize that the slope of this relation will be steeper in adults with MDD compared to healthy non-depressed adults. Aim 2: To determine the relation between negative affective reactivity to daily psychosocial stressor exposure and acute sympathetic stress reactivity in MDD. Negative affective reactivity will be calculated as the change in affect on days when stressors occurred compared to one's typical affect on non-stressor days and will be related to the magnitude of responsiveness to the acute stress interventions. We hypothesize that the slope of this relation will be steeper in adults with MDD compared to healthy non-depressed adults.

Conditions

• Major Depressive Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Acute Stressors	Sympathetic nervous system activity and blood pressure will be measured before, during, and after several acute laboratory-based cognitive (Stroop Color Word Test), emotional (International Affective Picture System), and physiological (Cold Pressor Test) stressors.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-05-01
• Primary completion: 2023-04-27
• Completion: 2023-04-27
• First posted: 2021-04-09
• Last updated: 2025-01-13
• Results posted: 2025-01-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States