Recruitment and Assessment Core Patient Recruitment

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The objective of this Recruitment and Assessment (R&A) Core for the CCNMD is to support all of the Center's projects. There are seven main aims of R&A: 1) To implement a well functioning screening, recruitment and assessment process for CCNMD projects; 2) To recruit elderly and young (> 60 yrs) patients meeting entry criteria per year for CCNMD projects; 3) To recruit and screen the normal, age-matched and young volunteers required for CCNMD projects; 4) To maintain a quality control system to monitor the work of the assessment core staff for reliability; 5) To conduct standardized MRI studies for patient assessment and to collect blood for genetic analyses; 6) Allocation of patients to different projects and ensuring that there is no undue burden on subjects; and 7) To develop and maintain an autopsy resource. The R&A Core will meet these goals chiefly through highly trained key personnel and research staff, including research psychiatrists, neuropsychologist, research assistants, a neuropsychological technician, a neuropathologist, and an Autopsy Coordinator. Subjects will receive a thorough psychiatric assessment, medical assessment, a detailed review of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk factors, standardized neurological examination, and a standardized cognitive assessment including a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Patients will be recruited through a variety of sources, including the impatient service at Duke and a state hospital, Duke affiliated clinics, the Duke ECT services, clinical trials, and an NIMH-sponsored naturalistic longitudinal study of depression. Elderly controls will be obtained through an Aging Center Registry of elderly volunteers. Young controls will be recruited through a similar data base. The R&A staff will work to ensure that all subjects have completed CCNMD protocols. R&A staff will find appropriate follow-up for depressed subjects, either through referral or enrollment in other research studies.