Effects of Erythropoietin on Cognition and Neural Activity in Mood Disorders

Summary

The present trial consists of 2 sub-studies that investigate important novel aspects of treatment with erythropoietin (EPO) on cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorder (BD) and recurrent unipolar depressive disorder (UD) (defined as minimum 2 treatment-requiring depressive episodes). The aims of the trial are three-fold. We aim to investigate the effects of 12 weekly recombinant human EPO infusions on cognition in (i) healthy people with cognitive impairment (substudy 1) and (ii) patients with remitted BD or recurrent UD (substudy 2), and (iii) explore early treatment-associated neural activity changes that may predict subsequent cognitive improvement. It is hypothesized that: i. 12 weekly EPO infusions improve cognition in healthy first-degree relatives and remitted BD patients in comparison with saline. ii. EPO vs. saline-treated participants will display early cognition-related neural activity in the frontal lobes, which will correlate with cognitive improvement.

Timeline

Start

2017-07-05

Primary completion

2022-10-01

Completion

2022-10-01

Publications

• Macoveanu J, Petersen JZ, Mariegaard J, Jespersen AE, Cramer K, Bruun CF, Madsen HO, Jorgensen MB, Vinberg M, Fisher PM, Knudsen GM, Hageman I, Ehrenreich H, Kessing LV, Miskowiak KW. Effects of erythropoietin on cognitive impairment and prefrontal cortex activity across affective disorders: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. J Psychopharmacol. 2024 Apr;38(4):362-374. doi: 10.1177/02698811241237869. Epub 2024 Mar 22.
• Petersen JZ, Schmidt LS, Vinberg M, Jorgensen MB, Hageman I, Ehrenreich H, Knudsen GM, Kessing LV, Miskowiak KW. Effects of recombinant human erythropoietin on cognition and neural activity in remitted patients with mood disorders and first-degree relatives of patients with psychiatric disorders: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2018 Nov 6;19(1):611. doi: 10.1186/s13063-018-2995-7.

Drugs

Indications