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.

Pregnancy study finds strong association between two antidepressants and heart anomalies

Women who took the antidepressant fluoxetine during the first three months of pregnancy gave birth to four times as many babies with heart problems as women who did not and the levels were three times higher in women taking paroxetine.

24 Nov 2008

Valdoxan - a melatonergic antidepressant - receives positive European opinion for major depressive disorder

The first melatonergic antidepressant - Valdoxan/Thymanax (agomelatine) - has received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency's (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for its use in the treatment of adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

21 Nov 2008

FDA approves tapentadol immediate-release tablets for pain in adults

Millions of Americans with moderate to severe acute pain and their health-care providers will soon have a new treatment option.

21 Nov 2008

Study looks at chronic medication use in children ages 5 to 19

America's tweens and teens more than doubled their use of type 2 diabetes medications between 2002 and 2005, with girls between 10 and 14 years of age showing a 166 percent increase.

4 Nov 2008

Three effective treatments for childhood anxiety disorders found

Treatment that combines a certain type of psychotherapy with an antidepressant medication is most likely to help children with anxiety disorders, but each of the treatments alone are also effective, according to a new study funded by the National Institute's of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) The study was published online Oct. 30, in the New England Journal of Medicine.

30 Oct 2008

Depressed pregnant women have twice the risk of preterm delivery

Depressed pregnant women have twice the risk of preterm delivery than pregnant women with no symptoms of depression, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. The study is published online in the Oxford University Press's journal Human Reproduction on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

23 Oct 2008

UK teenage suicide rates on the decline

Suicide rates in those aged 10-19 in the UK declined by 28% in the seven year period from 1997-2003, shows a study published today in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Manchester, showed that the decline was particularly marked in young males, where rates declined by 35%.

22 Oct 2008

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is a significant predictor of insomnia in women with breast cancer

A study in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a significant predictor of insomnia in women with breast cancer and confirmed that longer nocturnal wake episodes were associated with a flatter diurnal cortisol slope.

15 Oct 2008

Experts say heart patients should be screened for depression

The American Heart Association says heart patients are particularly vulnerable to depression and should be screened, and if necessary treated, to improve their recovery and overall health.

30 Sep 2008

Antidepressants can affect male fertility

Researchers in the United States have linked commonly used antidepressants to a reduction in some men's fertility.

25 Sep 2008

Sex differences found in response to common antidepressant

Women with depression may be much more likely than men to get relief from a commonly used, inexpensive antidepressant drug, a new national study finds. But many members of both sexes may find that it helps ease their depression symptoms.

31 Aug 2008

Potential new targets for antidepressants

The news about antidepressant medications over the past several years has been mixed. The bad news from large multicenter studies such as STAR*D is that current antidepressant medications are effective, but not as effective as one might hope. Thus, there is a significant need for new treatment mechanisms for depression. On that front, there has been mixed news as well.

27 Aug 2008

Antidepressants can affect a person's driving ability

A new study has raised serious concerns about how some people prescribed antidepressants are affected by the drugs.

18 Aug 2008

Antidepressants may impair driving ability

People taking prescription antidepressants appear to drive worse than people who aren't taking such drugs, and depressed people on antidepressants have even more trouble concentrating and reacting behind the wheel.

17 Aug 2008

How anti-depressants and cocaine interact with brain

In a first, scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University Medical Center have described the specifics of how brain cells process antidepressant drugs, cocaine and amphetamines. These novel findings could prove useful in the development of more targeted medication therapies for a host of psychiatric diseases, most notably in the area of addiction.

28 Jul 2008

Study shows promising results in deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression

New data from a study of patients with treatment-resistant depression who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subcallosal cingulate region (SCG or Cg25) of the brain shows that this intervention is generally safe and provides significant improvement in patients as early as one month after treatment. The patients also experienced continued and sustained improvement over time.

21 Jul 2008

Wyeth and Impax settle Effexor XR patent case

Wyeth and Impax Laboratories Inc. today announced that all conditions of a settlement of the U.S. patent infringement litigation pertaining to Impax's proposed generic capsule formulation of Wyeth's Effexor XR antidepressant have been approved by the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

17 Jul 2008