Clinical Testing of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for Quantitative Assessment of Depression
University of California, San Francisco
Summary
Develop a NIRSIT testing protocol that can be administered in the diagnostic setting and reliably distinguishes the symptoms and severity of depression, with the help of repeated measure (up to five visits per subject) comparison of patients being treated for Major Depressive Disorder with control, non-depressed subjects.
Description
Background \& Significance: The history of utilizing the near infrared (NIR) spectrum (650-1000nm) in cognitive studies is chronicled in a recent review. Taking advantage of the facts that human tissue is relatively transparent to NIR and hemoglobin absorbs those wavelengths of light, in 1977, Jobsis developed a non-invasive device able to detect oxygenation changes in the brain. He later used this technique to study cerebral oxygenation in new born infants. The first publications describing NIRS results began to appear in the early 1990s, and in 2000, the first commercially available device…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * All subjects who sign informed consent. * Controls: Volunteers over 18 years of age who are not depressed. * Patients over 18 years of age with a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder, receiving clinical therapy at SFVAMC. Exclusion Criteria: * Subjects who cannot sign informed consent. * Exclusion criteria for control subjects: 1.Depression 2.Anxiety, psychotic, substance abuse, mood and personality disorders 3.Major neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and other dementias 4.Neurologic disorders with anatomic lesions including traumatic brain injury,…
Interventions
- DeviceNIRSIT
NIRSIT is a device that utilizes Near Infrared Spectroscopy to provide a non-invasive measurement of frontal lobe blood oxygenation over time.
Location
- San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical CenterSan Francisco, California