Caroline Broeder is a PhD candidate at the department of Psychiatry and the department of Anatomy and Neurosciences of Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc. She has a background in cognitive neuroscience. Caroline is currently working on the RESET-medication study (www.jeugdtrauma-depressie.nl), a randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of pharmacological treatment for alleviating depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder and childhood trauma. Within the RESET-study, she is working on an MRI sub-study on stress system dynamics. She has a broad interest in stress system dynamics across psychiatric disorders.

“Does 1-week add-on treatment with the GR-antagonist mifepristone improve stress system dynamics in adults with depression following childhood trauma?”

Childhood trauma significantly impacts the risk and course of stress-related disorders, including depression. With this randomized clinical trial I investigate the effects of 1-week add-on treatment with the GR-antagonist mifepristone on stress system dynamics in adults with depression following childhood trauma. Stress system dynamics will be assessed using resting-state and task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase, subjective stress and mood during the acute (0-40 minutes) and recovery phase (60-100 minutes) of psychosocial stress before and 6 weeks after treatment. If effective, this would be the first hypothesis-driven drug treatment for depression following childhood trauma.

PhD student,
Amsterdam UMC