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ENABLE
ENABLE (Enabling Neuroscience Research Approaches for Brain, Feelings and Emotions) is an innovative platform for clinical trials in mood disorders. ENABLE is a multi-site platform being contributed to across Canada. The principal investigator (lead psychiatrist) at the Nova Scotia Health site is Dr. Rudolf Uher.
Why is there a need for ENABLE?
Mood disorders are prevalent in Canada, with one in five Canadians experiencing mental illness annually, including major depressive and bipolar disorders. These mental health challenges significantly impact individuals. To advance understanding of these disorders and their treatments, clinical research plays a crucial role. However, accessing clinical trials can be challenging due to specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, which limits how well findings can apply to the broader population.
What is the aim of ENABLE?
To address these challenges, the ENABLE platform aims to revolutionize mood disorder research by recruiting a diverse participant pool that reflect the real-world variations in mood disorders and by capturing other important information, such as comorbid mental health problems. There are three primary objectives for the ENABLE platform.
Firstly, ENABLE aims to offer standardized data collection methods to learn more about the clinical, mental and biological profiles and features of people with mood disorders. Secondly, participants in ENABLE will form a recruitment pool for efficient launch of clinical trials; ENABLE participants will have the option to agree to be contacted in the future regarding other studies or projects that could be of interest or benefit to them based on the information collected from the platform. Thirdly, the ENABLE platform will provide researchers with open-source clinical and neurobiological data to advance the field of mood disorder research and open new avenues of collaboration and discovery. The overarching goal is to develop a national, standardized master clinical trial platform for data collection and sharing.
What does participation involve?
Eligible participants will be asked to come in for two data collection sessions. The first will involve an interview and self-report questionnaires. The second session is optional, and will involve a blood test, physical activity tracking, an MRI, an EEG and some additional self-report questionnaires. There may be the option of completing the second round of data collection over more than one day. Some visits may be conducted remotely, while in-person data collection will be held at the DCRP in Halifax (in the Abbie J Lane building of the QEII, 5909 Veterans' Memorial Lane).
Who is eligible?
This study is recruiting people ages 16 and above in Nova Scotia who have experienced some form of depression in their life. Participants will be screened to ensure eligibility is met before data collection commences.
How do I get in touch?
If you are interested in participating in ENABLE or would like to find out more, you can get in touch with the DCRP via our contact form, by phone (902 473 5313) or email (depression@nshealth.ca). To chat with us, you can send us a message on Facebook Messenger.
ENABLE is part of the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CANBIND). You can read more about CANBIND here. ENABLE is funded by the Ontario Brain Institute.
DCRP personnel for ENABLE
Shizza Hassan, Research Assistant
Rudolf Uher, MD, PhD, Site Investigator
Additional resources
You can read more about this project at the links below: