Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) affects over 280 million individuals and accounts for more years of 'healthy' life lost than any other medical condition. Depression is 2-3x more common in women than men. Considering the severe consequences of MDD, dissemination of effective treatment resources is a pressing priority. A major obstacle, however, is the varied responses to treatment among depressed individuals. Evidence suggests that depressed individuals have unique profiles of underlying vulnerability to depression that can be characterized as 'high-risk' and 'low-risk' based on genetic, neurobiological, clinical, personality, and childhood maltreatment risk factors. The objectives of this study are to 1) examine whether high and low-risk profiles predict response and non-response to pharmacological treatment in individuals on a current episode of MDD, and 2) determine whether these differences are stronger in women than men. I hypothesize that individuals in low-risk profiles will be significantly more likely to experience positive treatment outcomes than those in high-risk profiles, and that these differences will be the most pronounced in women. This study will leverage a sample of ~300 individuals on a current episode of MDD from the Canadian Biomarker Network for Depression (CAN-BIND), a 7-site, pan-Canadian initiative. Results will the address the stark gender gap in burden of depression and inform the dissemination of targeted, effective treatment and maintenance resources to those who need them most.