Antidepressant News and Research

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Antidepressants are medicines that treat depression. Your doctor can prescribe them for you. They can improve your mood, sleep, appetite and concentration. It may take several weeks for them to help. There are several types of antidepressants. You and your doctor may have to try several before finding what works best for you.

Brain scans can predict therapeutic responses to talk therapy

UNC School of Medicine researchers have shown that brain scans can predict which patients with clinical depression are most likely to benefit from a specific kind of talk therapy.

4 Feb 2015

Atypical features common in bipolar disorder subtypes, associated with therapy

Atypical features are prevalent in all subtypes of bipolar disorder, a Chinese survey published in Neuroscience Bulletin, shows, and are associated with the use of antidepressant medication in patients with mixed stage and remission subtypes.

30 Jan 2015

Brain inflammation linked to clinical depression

A new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that the measure of brain inflammation in people who were experiencing clinical depression was increased by 30 per cent. The findings, published today in JAMA Psychiatry, have important implications for developing new treatments for depression.

28 Jan 2015

New survey finds long-term benefits of brain surgery in patients with epilepsy

Brain surgery for otherwise hard-to-treat epilepsy is effective for up to 15 years, according to a new survey by Henry Ford Hospital physicians.

28 Jan 2015

Neurobiologists find paradoxical effect of abuse-related cues in infants, adults

Neurobiologists at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere have found a surprising and paradoxical effect of abuse-related cues in rat pups: those cues also can lower depressive-like behavior when the rat pups are fully grown.

14 Jan 2015

Different antidepressants may affect pregnant women differently

About 15 percent of women in the United States suffer from anxiety disorders and depression during their pregnancies, and many are prescribed antidepressants. However little is known about how early exposure to these medications might affect their offspring as they mature into adults.

23 Dec 2014

People with severe dementia who live in community settings show more signs of depression

Researchers studied 414 people with severe dementia along with their carers in England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The study gathered information on quality of life, activities of daily living such as bathing, feeding and dressing and presence of depressive symptoms using standardised measures.

From The University of Manchester 17 Dec 2014

Sensitive toxicity test aims to detect dangerous side effects in pharmaceutical development

Because of undetected toxicity problems, about a third of prescription drugs approved in the U.S. are withdrawn from the market or require added warning labels limiting their use. An exceptionally sensitive toxicity test invented at the University of Utah could make it possible to uncover more of these dangerous side effects early in pharmaceutical development so that fewer patients are given unsafe drugs.

16 Dec 2014

Laughing gas could be used as treatment for severe depression

Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, has shown early promise as a potential treatment for severe depression in patients whose symptoms don't respond to standard therapies. The pilot study, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is believed to be the first research in which patients with depression were given laughing gas.

10 Dec 2014

Low doses of fluoxetine could hold key to preventing PMS symptoms

Low doses of fluoxetine - better known as the anti-depressant Prozac - could hold the key to preventing PMS symptoms, an international team of researchers has found.

8 Dec 2014

People with first-episode psychosis may benefit from medication treatment changes, study finds

Many patients with first-episode psychosis receive medications that do not comply with recommended guidelines for first-episode treatment, researchers have found. Current guidelines emphasize low doses of antipsychotic drugs and strategies for minimizing the side effects that might contribute to patients stopping their medication.

5 Dec 2014

Advanced prebiotic Bimuno has ability to reduce anxiety

Clasado Biosciences Limited, the producers and suppliers of the second generation prebiotic Bimuno (B-GOS), a unique trans-galactooligosaccharide, and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, today announce the results of clinical research demonstrating for the first time that an advanced prebiotic (Bimuno) has the ability to reduce anxiety.

4 Dec 2014

Depressive episodes hard to treat in continuous cycling bipolar disorder

Patients with bipolar disorder who switch directly between mania and depression without a period of euthymia have a poor response to short-term antidepressant treatment, study findings indicate.

3 Dec 2014

SAFit-ligands provide foundation for novel treatment of stress-related psychiatric disorders

The FK506-binding protein 51 (FKBP51) is an established risk factor for stress-related psychiatric disorders such as major depression. Drug discovery for FKBP51 has been hampered by the inability to pharmacologically differentiate against the very similar functional counterplayer FKBP52.

3 Dec 2014

New study shows that brain’s ability to manage stress depends on brain protein

The brain's ability to effectively deal with stress or to lack that ability and be more susceptible to depression, depends on a single protein type in each person's brain, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published November 12 in the journal Nature.

14 Nov 2014

Scientists receive NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants for mental health research

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation today announced the award of NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants valued at $1.5 million to 15 scientists, who are full professors or the equivalent, conducting innovative projects in diverse areas of neurobiological and behavioral research.

13 Nov 2014

Study finds that mental health disorders double heart disease, stroke risks

People facing mental health challenges are significantly more likely to have heart disease or stroke, according to a study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

28 Oct 2014

Analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs have beneficial effect on treatment of depression

Ordinary over the counter painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs purchased from pharmacies may also be effective in the treatment of people suffering of depression.

22 Oct 2014

Study reveals that people with stress-related inflammation may suffer from depression

Preexisting differences in the sensitivity of a key part of each individual's immune system to stress confer a greater risk of developing stress-related depression or anxiety, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published October 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

21 Oct 2014

Fatty fish intake appears to increase antidepressant response rates

Up to half of patients who suffer from depression (Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD) do not respond to treatment with SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). Now a group of Dutch researchers have carried out a study which shows that increasing fatty fish intake appears to increase the response rate in patients who do not respond to antidepressants.