Grant: Operating Grant

Depression is a chronic disabling disorder, where each new episode of depression significantly increases a patient's risk for falling into depression again, this is called relapse. Preventing depression relapse is a fundamental challenge in the care of formerly depressed patients. At present it is unclear why, following successful treatment, depression returns. The present proposal intends to examine the underlying cognitive and associated brain events that predict depression relapse in formerly depressed individuals. To do so we will measure brain activity in formerly depressed individuals' with functional magnetic resonance imaging to visualize these vulnerabilities, presently invisible to us. We will examine if a brain and a behavioural bias in how people pay attention to depression-relevant events predict relapse. To that end, we will employ treatments to see if these presumed abnormal biases can be undone, protecting individuals from the return of depression.