Advanced interventions for mood disorders

Project summary:
Mood disorders are one of the greatest causes of disability in the community. Both major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder usually start during adolescence and early adulthood, and frequently recur, causing suffering and disability over a large part of the lifespan. Our firstline treatments for mood disorders – psychotherapy and medication – are helpful for many patients, but many do not get the help from them they need.

Our research seeks to find new treatments, and new treatment approaches, for mood disorders. We are studying new treatments in clinical trials, and using functional MRI to understand how they work, and which patients they help. We are also using functional MRI to help us better understand the disorders themselves.

Publications:
Steward T, Davey CG, Jamieson AJ, Stephanou K, Soriano-Mas C, Felmingham KL, Harrison BJ (2021) Dynamic neural interactions supporting the cognitive reappraisal of emotion. Cereb Cortex 31(2):961–973.

Davey CG, Chanen AM, Hetrick SE, Cotton SM, Ratheesh A, Amminger GP, Koutsogiannis J, Phelan M, Mullen E, Harrison BJ, et al. (2019) The addition of fluoxetine to cognitive behavioural therapy for youth depression (YoDA-C): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre clinical trial. Lancet Psychiatry 6(9):735–744.

Davey, C. G. & McGorry, P. D. (2019). Early intervention for depression in young people: a blind spot in mental health care. The Lancet Psychiatry, 6(3), 267-272.

Davey CG, Harrison BJ (2018) The brain’s center of gravity: how the default mode network helps us to understand the self. World Psychiatry 17(3):278–279.

Davey CG, Breakspear M, Pujol J, Harrison BJ (2017) A Brain Model of Disturbed Self-Appraisal in Depression. Am J Psychiatry 174(9):895–903.

Davey CG, Pujol J, Harrison BJ (2016) Mapping the self in the brain’s default mode network. Neuroimage 132:390–397.

Principal Investigators

University of Melbourne: Prof Ben Harrison, Prof Chris Davey

The University of Bonn: Prof Dr Alexandra Philipsen, Prof Dr Silke Lux

PhD candidate: Eva Halbe