Intern Health Study
Enrolling by invitation
Conditions studied: Depression
In brief
Retrospective studies have established a strong correlation between reports of life stress and depression. Investigators have begun to further explore this relationship by examining the role of gene x stress interactions in the pathogenesis of depression. In a recent landmark study, Caspi and colleagues (2003) reported an interaction between a serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism and life stress in the development of depression. This finding has been replicated in some but not all follow up studies. Despite the initial promise of these results, the ability to draw definitive conclusions is compromised by significant study design limitations: 1) retrospective design 2) a focus on acute rather than chronic stress 3) substantial variation in the character and intensity of stress between subjects. Medical internship is a period filled with predictable and high levels of chronic uncontrolled stress. Rates of depression among interns are elevated compared to the general population. In this study, we aim to utilize the predictable and consistent stress of internship to investigate the relationship between stress, genes and depression with a prospective study design that bypasses some of the pitfalls of previous studies.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT01809080
- Run by
- University of Michigan
- People needed
- 25000
- Starts
- 2007-05-01
- Expected to finish
- 2027-07-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2026-08-07
Who can join
Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Subjects for our study will be drawn from incoming interns in the traditional and primary care internal medicine, general surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, neurology and psychiatry residency programs at participating University and Community residency programs, as well as fourth year medical students at participating medical schools.
You may not qualify if…
- None.
Where it is running
- University of Michigan Medical School — Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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