Clinical depression can affect every aspect of a patient’s life from the way they eat to their sleeping habits, their ability to perform work responsibilities or function in society, and more importantly how they feel about themselves and those around them. Unfortunately, it can also be incredibly difficult to find the right treatment for. 

Although millions of Americans suffer from depression, there’s no miracle treatment that works perfectly for the majority of patients. Finding the right medication or combination of medications to manage your depression – not to mention the correct dosage based off of your specific symptoms, body chemistry, and circumstances – can be incredibly difficult, and many patients may lack the funds, insurance coverage, or access to psychiatric care necessary to find an appropriate treatment method.

Here at Olympian Clinical Research, we’re taking huge strides to change that through our very own ongoing, in-house study for patients with depression. 

What Is The TRAIT Depression Study?

TRAIT is a depression study that we’re currently running here at OCR’s Tampa office. This study is a little different from our other clinical trials in a couple of ways, but primarily because rather than being conducted on behalf of a pharmaceutical company, it’s a physician-initiated study that we offer on an ongoing basis to patients meeting criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). It is a 3-month observational study evaluating the treatment response and tolerability of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). 

Since OCR has full control over the design of the study, the qualifications for enrollment aren’t as restrictive and we’re able to help patients who are in various stages of the depression diagnosis, treatment, and management process. In short, it’s our way of helping provide assistance to patients in the Tampa community who are struggling with depression but may or may not temporarily have access to the care they need!

What Are The Benefits Of Participating?

Whether you’ve been formally diagnosed with depression and haven’t found a treatment that works or are someone who’s just been experiencing symptoms of depression in recent months, there are so many reasons why participating in our TRAIT study could really benefit you! Here are a few of the biggest ones.

Access to free psychiatric care from a talented, board certified psychiatrist. One of the biggest benefits of participating in our TRAIT study is that you’ll receive clinical care from our board certified psychiatrist for the duration of the study at absolutely no cost! For patients without insurance or for those whose insurance doesn’t cover psychiatric care, this is truly life-changing. 

Depression treatment and management. Throughout your study participation our psychiatrist will work with you to identify and track your depression symptoms, recommend appropriate medications or lifestyle changes that may help with symptom management, and – most importantly – monitor the success of your treatment plan.

Finding the right combination and dosage of antidepressants to effectively manage your symptoms can be difficult, but we work closely with our patients to evaluate whether different medications are working and, if you’re not responding to what’s been prescribed, will make adjustments until we find what works best for you! 

Potential to be referred out to additional studies. Although the goal of our TRAIT study is to help patients find a successful long-term treatment plan for their depression, there are some cases where a patient demonstrates non-response to treatment and may be interested in other investigational depression treatments that are in the clinical trial process. 

Once a participant has completed the TRAIT study, they will either have the opportunity to participate in additional depression studies which may offer additional treatment, compensation for time/travel, etc., or they will be referred to community providers for ongoing treatment.

More Information

Our TRAIT depression study offers patients who are struggling with depression temporary access to the vital psychiatric care and treatment that, in many cases, is out of reach. If you live in the Tampa area and have been struggling with symptoms of depression for 8 or more weeks, contact our team to see if you qualify to participate in our TRAIT study!