Daniele Cavaleri

Dr. Daniele Cavaleri is a Medical Doctor (2019), General Adult Psychiatrist (2023), and PhD student in neurosciences at the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Milano-Bicocca. Under the mentorship of Professors Giuseppe Carrà and Francesco Bartoli, Dr. Cavaleri has been actively engaged in clinical psychiatry research since 2020, with a focus on clinical and biological correlates of severe mental disorders. He is involved in several national multicentric clinical studies, particularly on mood disorders. He has an expertise in research synthesis methods, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and umbrella reviews. As of 2024, Dr. Cavaleri’s scholarly contributions include over 20 publications in international, peer-reviewed journals, 7 of them as first author (Scopus h-index: 10). He has also reviewed more than 200 articles for various international scientific journals.

In addition to his research efforts, since 2021 Dr. Cavaleri has served as the Delegate of the Italian Society of Psychiatry at the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees, where he also chaired the Research Working Group (2022–2023). He maintains active collaborations with an international network of peers, constantly carrying out projects with significant scientific outputs. In 2023, he completed a Research Fellowship at the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Dr. Cavaleri has provided several contributions at different national and international congresses in the field of psychiatry and neurosciences as speaker, session moderator, and presenter of oral communications and posters. Dr. Cavaleri is also an Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Psychiatric Trainees.

PhD research project

The ReDREAM (Resistant Depression Response to Esketamine Assessing Metabolomics) Project: Untargeted metabolomics to identify biomarkers of treatment response to esketamine nasal spray in individuals with Treatment-Resistant Depression

Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) is a common condition, involving around 30% of people with major depressive disorder. In recent years, the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist esketamine has been approved as an add-on treatment for TRD. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying its antidepressant effects as well as the clinical and biological differences between responders and non-responders remain unclear. Recently, metabolomics has shown its potential to study candidate biomarkers relevant to TRD. This project aims to identify metabolic biosignatures that may represent novel correlates of response to esketamine in people with TRD. This observational, prospective study will select 20 participants with TRD aged 18–64 who will be administered with esketamine nasal spray following standard clinical practice, twice a week for 4 weeks (“induction phase”), then once a week for 4 additional weeks (“maintenance phase”). Clinical, psychometric, and biometric data will be collected. Peripheral venous blood samples for metabolomics analyses will be collected at baseline and processed to obtain serum aliquots, which will be then analysed through untargeted metabolomics assessments. Statistical analyses will test the correlations between baseline metabolic profile and depressive symptom improvement at study endpoints (weeks 4 and 8) and explore the likelihood of different metabolic phenotypes between responders and non-responders. Unbiased data from untargeted metabolomics associated with clinical and psychometric changes after treatment with esketamine may provide guidance on subjects who would benefit from this treatment the most, contributing to defining new paradigms for precision psychiatry-oriented, personalised care of TRD.