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.

Psychedelic drugs may work in multiple ways in the brain

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers have shown that psilocybin—the active chemical in “magic mushrooms”— still works its antidepressant-like actions, at least in mice, even when the psychedelic experience is blocked.

13 Apr 2021

Antidepressant exposure in the womb may increase offspring's risk of affective disorders

Major depressive disorder is highly prevalent, with one in five people experiencing an episode at some point in their life, and is almost twice as common in women than in men.

12 Apr 2021

Tapeworm infection drug blocks SARS-CoV-2 damage in the lungs

New research published in the journal Nature found the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the lungs resulted in abnormal pneumocytes and spike protein-mediated cell fusion. Their findings also showed that TMEM16F protein activation induces cell fusion. Therefore, drugs inhibiting the TMEM16F/Anoctamin6 calcium-activated ion channel, such as niclosamide, could serve as potential treatments for reducing the severity of COVID-19 infection.

12 Apr 2021

Antifungal and antidepressant drugs can effectively inhibit COVID-19 virus

New research published in the British Journal of Pharmacology indicates that two currently available medications--an antifungal drug and an antidepressant--can effectively inhibit the virus that causes COVID-19 in laboratory cells.

7 Apr 2021

Scientists seek Covid treatment answers in cheap, older drugs

Could a decades-old antidepressant be a secret weapon against covid? A few scientists think so, after two small studies showed that fluvoxamine, typically prescribed for obsessive-compulsive disorder, prevented serious illness in all participants who took the pills soon after developing symptoms.

29 Mar 2021

Fluoxetine (Prozac) performs strongly in vitro against SARS-CoV-2 (including mutants)

Researchers from Finland, to expand on these studies, tested some of these drugs against the new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The study is published on the preprint server bioRxiv.

24 Mar 2021

Study: 94% of older adults prescribed fall-risk-increasing drugs

Nearly every older adult was prescribed a prescription drug that increased their risk of falling in 2017, according to new University at Buffalo research.

16 Mar 2021

Antidepressants provide no important benefits for managing low back pain

A new systematic review led by UNSW Sydney has found that treating low back pain with antidepressant medicines provides no important benefits and has the potential to cause harm.

8 Mar 2021

Structural insights into glycine transporter open new avenues to find effective psychiatric drugs

Glycine can stimulate or inhibit neurons in the brain, thereby controlling complex functions. Unraveling the three-dimensional structure of the glycine transporter, researchers have now come a big step closer to understanding the regulation of glycine in the brain.

4 Mar 2021

Study reveals potential risk factors for developing nerve damage after cancer treatment

A low hemoglobin count, older age and high BMI are possible risk factors for developing nerve damage after cancer treatment, a UNSW-led study has found.

4 Mar 2021

Molecular modeling helps identify the binding site of antidepressantss

The effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other conventional antidepressants are believed to be based on their increasing the levels of serotonin and noradrenalin in synapses, while ketamine, a new rapid-acting antidepressant, is thought to function by inhibiting receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate.

19 Feb 2021

Study provides new insight into the effects of antidepressant drugs

18 Feb 2021

Researchers detect signs of depression in Spanish tweets

Researchers of the Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB) from UPF and Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in Barcelona, Spain, have identified behavioural and linguistic changes in tweets in Spanish published by users suffering from depression and who are taking medication to treat this disease.

15 Feb 2021

Enriched diet and companionship can reduce pain in mice with sickle cell disease

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the University of Minnesota have found that an enriched diet and companionship can reduce pain in mice with sickle cell disease by increasing serotonin.

1 Feb 2021

High density of street trees may help improve mental health

Depression, especially in urban areas, is on the rise, now more than ever. Mental health outcomes are influenced by, among other things, the type of environment where one lives.

25 Jan 2021

Study shows antidepressant drugs are largely ineffective for back and osteoarthritis pain

Antidepressant drugs are largely ineffective for back and osteoarthritis pain, despite being widely used for these conditions, suggests a review of the evidence published by The BMJ today.

20 Jan 2021

Antidepressants are not effective for treating back pain, osteoarthritis, shows study

Antidepressants are commonly used worldwide to treat pain, however new research from the University of Sydney shows they offer little to no help for people suffering chronic back pain and osteoarthritis and may even cause harm.

20 Jan 2021

Personalized neuromodulation approach provides relief from severe depression symptoms

Targeted neuromodulation tailored to individual patients' distinctive symptoms is an increasingly common way of correcting misfiring brain circuits in people with epilepsy or Parkinson's disease.

18 Jan 2021

New combination treatment may provide relief for patients with methamphetamine use disorder

A new treatment that combines two existing medications may provide long-sought relief for many battling debilitating methamphetamine use disorder, according to a study to be published tomorrow in The New England Journal of Medicine.

15 Jan 2021

Metabolites may be predictive indicators of patients at risk for recurrent major depression

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with Dutch scientists, have found that certain metabolites -; small molecules produced by the process of metabolism -; may be predictive indicators for persons at risk for recurrent major depressive disorder.

12 Jan 2021