Major Depressive Disorder News and Research

RSS

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a psychiatric condition characterized by depressed mood or anhedonia (significant loss of interest or pleasure). The condition affects more than 15.7 million adults and approximately 3 million adolescents (aged 13 to 17 years) in the USA each year.

Brain abnormality linked to general risk for mental illness

A new study by researchers at Duke University reports an abnormality in visual regions of the brain that is associated with a person's general risk for mental illness.

17 May 2018

National trial shows how high-tech strategies may change the field of mental health

A national research trial initiated by UT Southwestern in 2012 is generating the first set of results this year that provides an early glimpse into how such high-tech strategies may change the field of mental health.

16 May 2018

Akili Interactive closes $55 million financing to advance digital medicine platform for treatment of cognitive dysfunction

Akili Interactive, a leading prescription digital medicine company developing novel treatments for cognitive dysfunction, today announced that it has successfully closed a $55 million Series C financing led by Temasek.

9 May 2018

Study finds large, unmet need for mental health treatment in parents of multiples

Parents of twins and other multiple-birth children experience higher than average rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, particularly during the first three months, according to a survey study in the May issue of Journal of Psychiatric Practice.

4 May 2018

HBP researchers develop new tool to examine role of genes in disease-relevant brain regions

Elucidating the way from genes to cognition requires detailed insight into how anatomical areas with specific gene activities contribute to brain function and dysfunction. Up to now, the scientific community has developed many separate brain atlases for different modalities and scales.

25 Apr 2018

Pitt researcher secures nearly $5 million NIH funding for 'Tic-Tac-Toe' RF coil system

The University of Pittsburgh houses a whole-body 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imager (7T MRI), one of the strongest human MRI devices in the world and a powerful imaging tool that allows researchers to gain a far better understanding of brain structure and function.

13 Apr 2018

PET imaging agent may help predict effectiveness of depression treatment

A positron emission tomography imaging agent could show, ahead of time, whether a specific treatment is likely to be effective for major depressive disorder--a debilitating condition that affects more than 14 million Americans.

6 Apr 2018

Vitamin D blood test may have potential to rapidly diagnose bipolar disorder in children

A blood test may have the potential to speed accurate diagnosis - and proper treatment - of bipolar disorder in children, new research suggests.

5 Apr 2018

Study highlights divergent molecular mechanisms contributing to depression in men and women

Men and women with major depressive disorder have opposite changes in the expression of the same genes, according to a new postmortem brain study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.

14 Mar 2018

Mindfulness meditation training helps prevent major depression

Among primary care patients with subthreshold depression, mindfulness meditation training reduces the incidence of major depression and improves depression symptoms.

13 Mar 2018

Internet-based depression treatment has no long-term protective effect, study shows

The long-term outcome of a randomized controlled trial on depression treated with psychotherapy via internet is presented in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

9 Mar 2018

Study investigates use of drugs for the stomach and risk of major depressive disorder

A new study investigating the relationship between one of the commonest type of drugs used for protecting the stomach is presented in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

8 Mar 2018

People with MDD feel more negative emotion when remembering painful experiences

People with major depressive disorder (MDD) feel more negative emotion when remembering painful experiences than people without the disorder, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. The study reports that people with MDD were able to control the negative emotions about as well as people unaffected by MDD, but used somewhat different brain circuits to do so.

6 Mar 2018

Levels of inflammatory biomarkers could predict effectiveness of ECT for people with depression

People with major depression that has not been well controlled by medications and who have a biomarker in their blood indicating a higher level of inflammation may benefit more than people with less inflammation from electroconvulsive therapy to ease symptoms of their depression, according to a new UCLA study.

6 Mar 2018

TSRI scientists discover new target for treating major depressive disorder

Scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a new target for treating major depressive disorder, a disease that affects more than 16 million American adults.

1 Mar 2018

Novel method to extract valuable psychiatric symptom information from doctors' notes

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School have developed a new method to extract valuable symptom information from doctors' notes, allowing them to capture the complexity of psychiatric disorders that is missed by traditional sources of clinical data.

26 Feb 2018

Depression screening by primary care physicians important for adolescents

According to the American Academy of Paediatrics’ new guidelines released this week, all adolescents should undergo a screening for depression annually. The guidelines is published titled, “Guidelines for Adolescent Depression in Primary Care (GLAD-PC): Part I. Practice Preparation, Identification, Assessment, and Initial Management,” by the GLAD-PC Steering group.