Late-life depression is a significant public health concern, and effective interventions for prevention and treatment are needed. Insomnia and inflammation are modifiable targets for depression prevention, and this study is significant in using an experimental approach (i.e., inflammatory challenge) to probe acute inflammatory- and depression responses as a function of insomnia, which will inform identification of molecular targets for pharmacologic interventions, and improvement of insomnia treatments to prevent depression in older adults. Project
This study (SHARE-D) will use an inflammatory challenge (i.e., endotoxin) to probe acute inflammatory- and depression responses (primary outcome) in older adults as a function of insomnia. Older adults with insomnia show chronic inflammation; sleep disturbance also activates inflammatory signaling; chronic inflammation primes acute inflammatory responses; chronic inflammation, as well as acute inflammatory reactivity, predict depression over the following year; and finally, endotoxin induces acute inflammation along with depressive symptoms, with preliminary evidence that "two-hits" (i.e., sleep disturbance and inflammatory challenge) are associated with exaggerated increases in depression, especially in women. In this placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind study of low dose endotoxin in older adults (60-80 y; stratified by sex) with insomnia (n=60) vs. comparisons without insomnia (n=100), the investigators hypothesize that older adults with insomnia will show heightened inflammatory- and affective responding to inflammatory challenge as compared to those without insomnia. The investigation aims to: 1) examine differences in depressive symptoms and measures of negative affect responding as a function of insomnia and inflammatory challenge; 2) examine differences in measures of positive affect responding as a function of insomnia and inflammatory challenge; and 3) examine differences in experimentally-induced inflammation in relation to depressive symptoms and measures of negative- and positive affect responding as a function of insomnia.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
160
Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute
Los Angeles, California, United States
Depressed Mood Subscale of the Profile of Mood States (POMS)
The Depressed Mood Subscale of the POMS is a self-and observer rated assessment of depressed mood in which severity of depressed mood is rated using a visual analog scale from 1 to 5 (5 being most severe). Each timepoint is scored and analyses examine the temporal profile of change with assessment every hour
Time frame: 12 hours
Depressed mood and depressive symptoms as measured by the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)
Depressed mood and depressive symptom severity by self-reported assessment using the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating scale with a range from 0 to 54 with a higher score indicating more severe depressive symptoms. Each timepoint is scored and analyses examine the temporal profile of change with assessment every 2 hours
Time frame: 8 hours
Hamilton Depression Rating Scale
The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale is on the most widely used scales in depression, which is adapted to evaluate acute changes in depressive symptoms. A trained interviewer, blind to the experimental condition, make ratings of items of depressed mood, feelings of guilt, loss of interest, retardation/agitation, anxiety, and somatic symptoms using items from the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The 17-item version will be used.
Time frame: 8 hours
Emotion Facial Recognition Task
This is a computer-based test that includes color photographs of facial expression of evoked-or felt-emotions: happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, and nonemotional or neutral. Participants rate the emotional valence using a scale of 0-8 of each expression.
Time frame: about 2 hours
Emotion Intensity Task
This is a computer-based test used along with emotion facial recognition to test subjective ratings of perceived intensity in response to facially-expressed emotions
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Time frame: about 2 hours
Probabilistic Reward Task
This is a probabilistic reward task that is administered using computerized reward-learning task rooted in signal detection theory that yields an objective measurement of participant's ability to modulate behavior as a function of rewards. The variable that will be scored is termed response bias (RB), which reflects participants' preference for the stimulus paired with more frequent rewards.
Time frame: about 2 hours
Effort Expenditure for Reward Task
Similar to the Reward Learning Task, this is a computer based reward task to evaluate reward processing in the context of monetary reward.
Time frame: about 2 hours
Social Reward Task
This will evaluate another component of reward by subjective reports and task sensitivity to general social rewards
Time frame: about 2 hours
Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale
The Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) is a self-administered questionnaire with 14 items assessing four domains of pleasure response/hedonic experience: interest/pastimes, social interaction, sensory experience, and food/drink, with each item scored from 1 to 4.
Time frame: 8 hours
Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale
This self-report scale rates interest in 10 different activities, how much a person is interested in doing that activity right now
Time frame: 8 hours