Common Assessment Package
Chaired by Madhukar Trivedi, M.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
The Common Assessment Package is a set of scales used for depression and bipolar disorder assessment. This package has been developed and finalized for the purpose of standardizing depression and bipolar diagnosis in both research and clinical settings, which is the first step towards improved diagnosis, research, and clinical intervention across centers. The package includes nine different scales for generating a portrait of disability in patients, the measurements of which can now be standardized across multiple sites. The implementation of this package clinically as well as in research, naturalistic outcomes studies, and large-scale clinical registries will be the project of 2010.
NNDC Data Registry
Chaired by David Silbersweig, M.D., of Brigham & Women's Hospital, Partners HealthCare - Harvard Medical School
A data registry is an essential step towards improving research and clinical translation. The NNDC is taking steps to compile and standardize data measurement, ensuring compatibility across centers, examine outcomes, and identify personalized predictors of risk and resilience that can allow early intervention or even prevention of depression and bipolar disorders. This registry will facilitate large-scale, longitudinal, multi-site, multi-disciplinary, multi-modal studies, and be able to compile, analyze, and archive data generated by a widespread clinical outcomes from 20 or more medical institutions. Making use of clinical data derived from mental healthcare, primary care, and community settings, the data registry will house information from a variety of NNDC projects, including integrated biomarker measures, clinical, observational and trial data, economic data, and others.
Web Information Clearinghouse
Chaired by Maurizio Fava, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners HealthCare - Harvard Medical School
In 2009, the NNDC Education and Teaching Committee began formal work to develop a Web Information Clearinghouse for Mood Disorders, also known as the NNDC MoodBook. The MoodBook is a comprehensive, web-based resource aimed at compiling and organizing the best information available for a consumer audience, as well as a resource for clinical providers. This is a collaborative effort to improve the quality and availability of public information about mood disorders.
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
Chaired by Sarah Lisanby, M.D., of Columbia University and John O’Reardon, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania
The NNDC rTMS task group is dedicated to the effective study and implementation of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as an alternative treatment for depression. In 2008, the first rTMS device received FDA approval for selected individuals with Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD). While the evidence for rTMS continues to grow, the nation’s neuromodulation researchers and clinicians now face a critical opportunity to nationally improve outcomes for those individuals with previously intractable depression. However, if rTMS is to be further tested, refined, and trusted adequately to generate reimbursement, larger-sample standardized assessments are required. To address some of the multitude of variables that may influence rTMS efficacy as a treatment for TRD, the NNDC rTMS task group developed and implemented the first rTMS data registry to standardize research and clinical data from NNDC Centers delivering rTMS treatments across the nation. The team also designed a protocol to evaluate dosage adjustments to make these treatments more effective.
Women and Mood Disorders
Chaired by Heather Flynn, Ph.D. of the University of Michigan
The Women and Mood Disorders Task Group is dedicated to ensuring that the important considerations for women suffering from depression and bipolar disorders at various stages in life are addressed in a standardized, evidence-based, large-sample research approach, so that findings can then be more rapidly translated into clinical care. This task group is working on data management, standardized assessment, and multi-site clinical dissemination of best practices for depression treatment for women, especially those undergoing pregnancy, postpartum, and/or menopause. This group is incorporating large samples from prior studies while planning future projects, and leading the development of a large national registry.
Bipolar Care Model/Intervention Dissemination
Chaired by Amy Kilbourne, Ph.D. of the University of Michigan
The Intervention Dissemination task group is dedicated to the improved dissemination of an effective wellness model for the lifetime management of bipolar disorder. The goal of the Bipolar Disorder Medical Care Model (BCM) is to help patients with bipolar and other mental disorders achieve personal wellness goals through a combination of self-management, care management, and individualized guidance in promoting healthy lifestyles and symptom management. Developed in collaboration with various Universities and with Veterans Administration support, BCM has now been implemented at four active NNDC sites around the United States. Further dissemination is being discussed, including outreach dissemination into the NNDC’s proposed satellite operations. The NNDC Intervention Dissemination Task Group is leading efforts to make this care model available and to study its efficacy in coordinated large-scale studies from active sites.
Adolescent Depression Awareness Program
Chaired by Karen Swartz, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University
The peak ages of onset for clinical depression are between 15 – 24, when individuals are in schools, colleges and the military. To address these special populations and enhance awareness, improve screening, and diminish stigma, the NNDC aims to employ several integrated strategies: enhance outreach and teaching programs in High Schools, building upon the Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP) developed at Johns Hopkins; adapt these strategies to earlier school programs; integrate the Depression in College Campuses initiatives begun at the University of Michigan nine years ago with the NNDC; and incorporate and disseminate preventive internet strategies such as the “CampusMindworks” program supported by the Department of Education and developed at the University of Michigan Depression Center.
If you are interested in learning more about current NNDC projects, please email send an email to nndc@nndc.org
