How can this study help to understand recovery from depression?
Antidepressants are an established treatment for depression. Unfortunately not everyone responds to antidepressants and we don’t know why this is the case. We believe it must be due to individual differences both in how depression affects the brain and the effects of antidepressants.
We will be comparing how the brain works in people with and without depression using a brain scan. Those who are depressed will then receive treatment with a standard antidepressant (citalopram) and have another brain scan after treatment to look at the differences between people who have improved and those who haven’t. This will help our understanding of depression and how antidepressants work which will allow the development of better treatments for depression.
