An observational study in Depression, Treatment Resistant Depression and Mood Disorders, sponsored by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 10 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-17.
Sponsored by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center · Observational
SHAKTI (from the Sanskrit word for "power") is a 5-year natural history, longitudinal, prospective study of a cohort of 6,000 participants that will help uncover the socio-demographic, lifestyle, clinical, psychological, and neurobiological factors that contribute to antidepressant treatment response (remission, recurrence, relapse and individual outcomes in depressive disorders) and resilience. As this is an exploratory study, we will assess a comprehensive panel of carefully selected participant specific parameters - socio-demographic (age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, economic); life habits (physical activity, substance use); clinical (medical history, anxious depression, early life trauma), biological (biomarkers in blood, saliva, urine, stool), behavioral (cognitive, emotional), neurophysiological (EEG), and neuroimaging (magnetic resonance imaging; MRI) with the goal of developing the most robust predictive models of depression treatment response and of outcomes.
SHAKTI is a non-randomized, natural history, non-treatment, longitudinal cohort study. Participants who are receiving standard of care treatment for depression and other comorbidities from their treating clinician will be allowed to continue such treatments in this study. There are no experimental study procedures, other than methods used for data capture (questionnaires, biospecimen collection, EEG, and MRI). Participants will be expected to visit study site(s) for repeated collection of data (assessments, biospecimens, and imaging procedures), up to 4 times a year for up to 5 years. A reduced battery of tests is allowable if subject is not able or willing to complete the full battery after the baseline visit.
The primary objective of this initiative is to implement a prospective study that will allow us to identify and validate biosignatures of 1) response to treatments for depression and depression outcome and 2) resilience and protective factors that reduce the risk of developing mood and anxiety disorders (using an integrated array of participant specific data: socio-demographic, lifestyle, clinical and behavioral assessments, fluid-based biomarkers, genomics, neuroimaging, EEG, and cell-based assays) in a longitudinal cohort of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) participants with elevated symptoms of a depressive disorder and participants at risk for these illnesses.
Symptom presence, severity, and remission across various treatment options will be assessed using questionnaires for symptom changes, antidepressant treatment tolerability and overall quality of life. Other outcomes generated from this study will include rate of change in quantitative measures of brain function, of depression relevant brain regions correlated with systems-levels behavior and other functional neuro-circuitry MRI measures. Rate of change of specified biochemical biomarkers will also be assessed. Integration of these measures will provide an unmatched understanding into the mechanisms of depression and hold tremendous promise for better disease treatment and associated outcomes.
Integration of these measures will provide an unmatched understanding into the mechanisms of depression and hold tremendous promise for better disease treatment and associated outcomes.
Data will be collected from 3 participant groups:
We also plan to enroll families within and across all three groups. For the purposes of this study, we are defining family as a group of two or more people related by either birth, marriage, or adoption, and residing together. Participants may enroll in this study as an individual or with their family member(s). If participants and their family member(s) are enrolled together, their study identifiers (IDs) will be linked so that we may group family data. Participants will NOT be able to see or learn about their family members' data.
Specific Aims of this Study:
Aim 1. Create the longitudinal SHAKTI research cohort to support a natural history study of depression, an important source of knowledge to advance depression understanding and management among API individuals.
Aim 2. Establish a SHAKTI biospecimen resource consisting of blood, plasma, serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), DNA, RNA, saliva, and urine samples collected from participants at study visits as a platform for translational research into biochemical and molecular characterization of depression.
Aim 3. Identify neuroimaging and neuropsychiatric parameters that serve as biomarkers or may be associated with response to specific antidepressant treatment modalities.
Aim 4. Annually examine biosignatures and independent factors (demographic, social, environmental, genetic, EEG, fMRI) associated with resilience in at-risk participants to determine changes and plasticity of biomarkers.
Aim 5. Examine the interaction between psychiatric symptoms and changes in the biopsychosocial signature.
Aim 6. Identify gut microbiome biomarkers that are linked to psychiatric status in participants with mood disorders.
Aim 7. Identify the association between participants who are family members to compare biosignatures of depression and resilience.
Aim 8. Sub-Study: Evaluate psychological, social, and physiological correlates, from mobile device-based data, of depression severity and construct a model to estimate mood based on these measures.
8,577 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,720 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 6,000 is above the median of 175 across 1,257 observational studies indexed under Depression.
Browse Depression studies →University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 1,010 studies on the registry; 199 are open to participants now.
Of its 139 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 105 (76%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Participants will be adults or youths aged 10 years and older living in Texas who self-identify fully or partially as being of Asian or Pacific Islander descent who have provided informed consent.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Meet criteria for one of these three groups:
Exclusion Criteria:
Individuals with a lifetime or a current diagnosis of a mood disorder (based upon a semi-structured diagnostic interview)
Other: Observational Study
Individuals at risk for developing mood disorders (has history of anxiety disorder, substance use disorder, trauma, or mood disorder that does not meet criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) or Bipolar Disorder or a first-degree relative with a history of mood disorders)
Other: Observational Study
Healthy individuals who do not have a psychiatric diagnosis (including no history of mood disorders and no first-degree relative with a history of mood disorders)
Other: Observational Study
No Treatment or Intervention Provided
Depression Severity
Longitudinal changes in depression severity measured by Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for non-psychotic depressive disorders.
Time frame: 5 years
Functioning
Comparison of Longitudinal changes in functioning as measured by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) in patients with depression.
Time frame: 5 years
Biomarkers
Comparison of Longitudinal changes in fluid-based biomarkers as measured by proteomic methods, metabolomics methods, transcriptomic methods, genomic methods, and epigenomic methods in patients with depression.
Time frame: 5 years
Started Mar 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Feb 2034, 119 months after the start.
Of 460 non-industry observational studies under Depression, half reached primary completion within 34 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 14 and three quarters within 63. This study's planned 119 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 493 studies reached it within 33 months; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 62.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center →