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.

Genetic variations increase risk of anxiety disorders

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers - in collaboration with scientists at the University of California at San Diego and Yale University - have discovered perhaps the strongest evidence yet linking variation in a particular gene with anxiety-related traits.

4 Mar 2008

Clinical depression raises risk of death for heart attack patients years after attack

Depressed heart attack patients have a higher risk for sudden death in the months following a heart attack.

4 Mar 2008

FDA approves PRISTIQ for the treatment of adult patients with major depressive disorder

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved PRISTIQ (desvenlafaxine), a structurally novel, once-daily serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), to treat adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

3 Mar 2008

AstraZeneca submits sNDA for SEROQUEL XR for treatment of major depressive disorder

AstraZeneca has announced the submission of a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for once- daily SEROQUEL XR (quetiapine fumarate) Extended-Release Tablets to seek approval for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) as monotherapy, adjunct therapy, and maintenance therapy in adult patients.

1 Mar 2008

Antidepressants only benefit some

A new study published today in PLoS Medicine suggests that antidepressants only benefit some, very severely depressed patients.

27 Feb 2008

Depressed teens respond well to combination therapy

More than half of teenagers with the most debilitating forms of depression that do not respond to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) show improvement after switching to a different medication combined with cognitive behavioral therapy, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and their colleagues in a multicenter study have found

27 Feb 2008

Adding therapy helps adolescents with depression not responding to SSRIs

For adolescents with depression not responding to an initial treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI; a class of antidepressant drugs), switching medications and adding cognitive behavioral therapy resulted in an improvement in symptoms, compared to just changing medications, according to a study in the February 27 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

27 Feb 2008

SSRI anti-depressants found to offer little clinical benefit

According to new research from Britain, new generation anti-depressants could be for many patients a waste of time and money and offer little clinical benefit.

26 Feb 2008

Researchers explore the antidepressant effects of ketamine

Drug treatments for depression can take many weeks for the beneficial effects to emerge.

22 Feb 2008

Comparison of venlafaxine and SSRIs in the treatment of depression

There are numerous antidepressant medications currently on the market, but sadly, many patients still experience the debilitating symptoms of depression even with treatment.

21 Feb 2008

Aquatic exercise shows benefit for fibromyalgia sufferers

Patients suffering from fibromyalgia could benefit significantly from regular exercise in a heated swimming pool, a study published in the open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy shows.

21 Feb 2008

Brain's serotonin system differs between men and women

A new thesis from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that the brain's serotonin system differs between men and women.

21 Feb 2008

Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) versus placebo for obsessive compulsive disorder

Common antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft can be effective treatment options for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a new review of studies.

20 Feb 2008

As depression symptoms improve with antidepressants, hopelessness can linger

People taking medication for depression typically see a lot of improvements in their symptoms during the first few months, but lagging behind other areas is a sense of hopefulness, according to new research from the University of Michigan Health System.

18 Feb 2008