Patients:

Inclusion Criteria:

PMD

• Between 18-70 years of age
• DSM-IV diagnosis of Major Depression with psychotic features

  NPMD

• Between 18-70 years of age
• DSM-IV diagnosis of Major Depression without psychotic features

Exclusion Criteria:

PMD and NPMD

• ECT in the six-months prior to the study
• Abuse of drugs or alcohol in the six months prior to the study
• History of weight loss greater than 5 lbs. in previous month
• History of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, or endocrine disorder
• If currently taking antipsychotic or antidepressant medications, must be stable on the medication for at least one-week prior to entering the study
• Currently pregnant

Healthy Controls

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any head trauma with loss of consciousness
• Drug abuse/dependence within the last six months
• Hearing or vision loss
• Untreated medical illness
• Current psychiatric disorder

What Will Subjects Do?

After initial psychiatric and neuroimaging evaluation, PMD patients will be randomly assigned to receive mifepristone or placebo under double-blind conditions. Total treatment period is 8 days, and patients will be administered 600 mg/day of mifepristone or placebo. Patients will be evaluated using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Brown Assessment of Belief Scale (BABS) and the Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI). If patients opt to proceed with the continuation phase, they can be in the study up to 19 days.

Controls and subjects with depression without psychotic features will be in the study for two days.

Subjects Needed:

Characteristic Subjects:

We will recruit 30 subjects with Psychotic Major Depression (PMD) and 30 subjects with Non-psychotic Major Depression (NPMD).

Healthy Subjects: 30

If you would like to participate in this study, whether or not you think you qualify, please click the Sign Up button below, and let us know of your interest.