Brain scan study tests if talk therapy rewires the brain to fight late-life suicide

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Ages aged 50-80 \[stratified so that 50% are older than 65\] * Endorsement of Suicidal Ideation \[Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-5 (SCID-5) Suicide Item (Item 9) with a score of 2 * Major Depressive Disorder as determined by the SCID-5 * Depression Rating Scale \[Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)\] score of 16 or greater. * Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE) equal or greater than a score of 23 * Off antidepressants or on a stable dose of an antidepressant for 8 weeks and do not intend to change the dose in the next 10 weeks, without individual psychotherapy services during the study period. * Capacity to provide consent for research assessment and treatment. Exclusion Criteria: * Intent or plan to attempt suicide in the near future. * History or presence of psychiatric diagnoses other than major depressive disorder without psychotic features, generalized anxiety disorder, or specific phobia. * Use of psychotropic drugs or cholinesterase inhibitors other than use of 0.5 mg or less of lorazepam daily up to seven times per week. * Neurological disorders (dementias, amnestic and multidomain Mild Cognitive Impairment, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, etc.). * Acute or severe medical illness in the past 3 months (metastatic cancer, multiple sclerosis, decompensated cardiac, liver or kidney failure, major surgery, stroke or myocardial infarction, cardiac, renal, or respiratory failure; severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc.) that may be the primary cause depressive symptoms, influence brain systems of interest, or impact ability to participate in the study. * Contraindications to MRI scanning including cardiac pacemaker, heart valve replacement, vascular stent, insulin pump, cochlear implant, any other metallic biomedical implant contraindicating to MRI, and claustrophobia.