ASCERTAINTRD: Comparative Effectiveness Research Trial for Antidepressant Incomplete and Non-responders With TRD

Sponsor
Massachusetts General Hospital (Other)
Overall Status
Completed
CT.gov ID
NCT02977299
Collaborator
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Other)
278
13
3
59.8
21.4
0.4

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

This is a multi-site, randomized, open-label, effectiveness trial comparing three treatment arms for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients with TRD who are currently on ongoing, stable and adequate antidepressant therapy (ADT). Adequate ADT is defined as a therapeutically sufficient dose for a sufficient treatment period, which would be expected to be effective as listed in the MGH Antidepressant Treatment Response Questionnaire (ATRQ). Patients will be randomized in a 1:1:1 fashion to one of three open-label treatment arms: a) aripiprazole augmentation, b) rTMS augmentation, and c) switching to venlafaxine XR or Duloxetine.

Condition or Disease Intervention/Treatment Phase
  • Drug: Aripiprazole
  • Device: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
  • Drug: Venlafaxine XR
Phase 4

Study Design

Study Type:
Interventional
Actual Enrollment :
278 participants
Allocation:
Randomized
Intervention Model:
Parallel Assignment
Masking:
Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose:
Treatment
Official Title:
Augmentation Versus Switch: Comparative Effectiveness Research Trial for Antidepressant Incomplete and Non-responders With Treatment Resistant Depression (ASCERTAIN-TRD)
Actual Study Start Date :
May 1, 2017
Actual Primary Completion Date :
Apr 24, 2022
Actual Study Completion Date :
Apr 24, 2022

Arms and Interventions

Arm Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Aripiprazole Augmentation

Patients randomized to this treatment arm will be instructed to continue all permitted psychotropics at their current dose throughout the 8-week trial and initiate adjunctive aripiprazole. The starting dose will be 5mg daily. The dose may be reduced to as low as 2mg for tolerability issues (this will be the lowest dose permitted for continuation in the trial). The dose may be adjusted in 2 or 5mg increments. The minimum time per increment will be 7 days. The maximum dose will be set at 15mg daily. For patients who are not on potent cytochrome 2D6 inhibitors (such as paroxetine, fluoxetine, duloxetine) or on potent cytochrome 3A4 inhibitors (such as fluvoxamine and nefazodone) and who are able to tolerate 15mg daily, the maximum dose can be raised to 20mg daily for efficacy.

Drug: Aripiprazole
Oral adjunctive therapy with aripiprazole, dose adjusted for effectiveness and tolerability.
Other Names:
  • Abilify
  • Experimental: rTMS Augmentation

    Patients randomized to this treatment arm will be instructed to continue all permitted psychotropics at their current dose throughout the 8-week trial. We will use clinical TMS stimulators with focal figure-of-eight coils. We will start by measuring the patient´s motor threshold (MT), which is a measure of cortical excitability used to standardize the intensity of stimulation across subjects.

    Device: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
    Adjunctive therapy with transcranial magnetic stimulation, dose adjusted for effectiveness and tolerability.

    Experimental: Switching To Venlafaxine XR

    Patients randomized to this treatment arm will be instructed to continue all permitted psychotropics throughout the 8-week trial, except for their antidepressant(s). They will be instructed to discontinue all antidepressants and initiate venlafaxine that day, as direct switch to serotonergic antidepressants is well tolerated and avoids loss of precious therapeutic time (Montgomery et al., 2014), including to switching to venlafaxine in STAR*D (Rush et al., 2006b). For patients who do not prefer a direct switch, or when clinically indicated otherwise in the opinion of the site investigator, a gradual tapering during the screening period will be permitted as long as a direct switch to venlafaxine is made on the baseline visit from the final antidepressant dose. The starting dose of venlafaxine will be 75mg daily. The dose may be reduced to as low as 37.5mg for tolerability issues (this will be the lowest dose permitted for continuation in the trial).

    Drug: Venlafaxine XR
    Oral switch therapy with venlafaxine, dose adjusted for effectiveness and tolerability.
    Other Names:
  • Effexor XR
  • Outcome Measures

    Primary Outcome Measures

    1. Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) [8 weeks]

      Assessment of depression severity.

    Secondary Outcome Measures

    1. Quality of Life, Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire - Short Form (Q-LES-Q-SF) [8 weeks]

      Assessment of quality of life

    Other Outcome Measures

    1. Massachusetts General Hospital Cognitive and Physical Symptoms Questionnaire (MGH CPFQ) [8 weeks]

      Assessment of cognitive symptoms

    Eligibility Criteria

    Criteria

    Ages Eligible for Study:
    18 Years to 80 Years
    Sexes Eligible for Study:
    All
    Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
    No
    Inclusion Criteria:
    1. women and men ages 18-80,

    2. with MDD, of at least 12 weeks duration, according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria confirmed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI; Sheehan et al, 1998),

    3. have a Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS - Montgomery and Asberg, 1979) score of at least 20 at screen and baseline as assessed by site clinicians,

    4. meet criteria for TRD during the current major depressive episode documented in the MGH Antidepressant Treatment History Questionnaire (ATRQ) (Chandler et al., 2010), which will be defined as being non-responders (less than 50% of symptom improvement) to two or more depression treatment trials of adequate dose and duration as defined by the MGH ATRQ,

    5. are currently on an antidepressant of adequate dose (as defined by the MGH ATRQ) and duration (at least 8 weeks), with the antidepressant dose being stable over the past four weeks, and with documented (in the MGH ATRQ) non-response (less than 50% improvement) to the current antidepressant.

    6. Patients who have passed the MGH CTNI remote assessment, with documentation provided to sites by MGH CTNI.

    Exclusion Criteria:
    1. pregnant or breastfeeding women, women of childbearing potential who are not using an accepted means of birth control, or women with a positive urine pregnancy test,

    2. patients who have received treatment with rTMS, aripiprazole, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or venlafaxine during the current episode,

    3. patients who express an objection to receiving treatment with at least one of the three treatment arms of our study,

    4. patients with any history of bipolar disorder or psychosis (diagnosed by MINI),

    5. patients with active alcohol or substance abuse disorders within the past 6 months (diagnosed by MINI),

    6. patients with suicidal ideation of the degree that, in the opinion of the evaluating clinician, participation in the study would place them at significantly increased risk of suicide,

    7. patients with unstable medical issues of such degree that, in the opinion of the evaluating clinician, participation in the study would place them at significant risk of a serious adverse event, or patients with a screening hemoglobin A1c level greater than 7.5%, or patients with epilepsy, dementia, Parkinson's disease, or Huntington's Disease,

    8. patients who have received treatment with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS),

    9. patients who have not responded to more than five FDA-approved antidepressant treatment trials of adequate dose and duration during the current episode, or who did not respond to ECT in previous episodes

    10. patients on excluded medications,

    11. patients with a positive urine screen drug test for a substance for which they do not have a valid prescription for a valid medical reason,

    12. patients with currently abnormal thyroid function tests,

    13. patients who have received at least one dose of a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) four weeks or less prior, and

    14. for patients on concomitant psychotropic agents (anticonvulsants, benzodiazepines, hypnotics, opiates, triiodothyronine (T3), modafinil, psychostimulants, buspirone, melatonin, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, l-methylfolate, s-adenosyl methionine, lithium) not on the same dose for at least four weeks prior to study entry or who do not agree to continue at the same dose during the acute phase of the study.

    15. Patients who do not meet safety criteria for TMS: history of seizures, cardiac pacemaker, DBS or VNS, brain aneurism clips or other metallic implants in the intracranial space.

    16. Also excluded is an individual who has received any administration of ketamine in the current episode for the treatment of depression.

    Contacts and Locations

    Locations

    Site City State Country Postal Code
    1 The University of Alabama School of Medicine Birmingham Alabama United States 35294
    2 Pacific Institute of Medical Research Los Angeles California United States 90095
    3 Stanford University Stanford California United States 94305
    4 University of South Florida Tampa Florida United States 33613
    5 Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago Illinois United States 60611
    6 New York University New York New York United States 10003
    7 University of Cincinnati Cincinnati Ohio United States 45219
    8 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States 19104
    9 Roper St. Francis Hospital Charleston South Carolina United States 29425
    10 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas Texas United States 75390
    11 Baylor College of Medicine Houston Texas United States 77030
    12 University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada
    13 University of Manitoba St. Boniface Hospital Winnipeg Manitoba Canada R2H 2A6

    Sponsors and Collaborators

    • Massachusetts General Hospital
    • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

    Investigators

    None specified.

    Study Documents (Full-Text)

    None provided.

    More Information

    Publications

    None provided.
    Responsible Party:
    George I. Papakostas, Scientific Director, MGH Clinical Trial Network and Institute (CTNI), Massachusetts General Hospital
    ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
    NCT02977299
    Other Study ID Numbers:
    • 2015P002430
    First Posted:
    Nov 30, 2016
    Last Update Posted:
    Apr 27, 2022
    Last Verified:
    Apr 1, 2022
    Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
    No
    Plan to Share IPD:
    No
    Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:
    Yes
    Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:
    Yes
    Additional relevant MeSH terms:

    Study Results

    No Results Posted as of Apr 27, 2022