Depressive Disorder News and Research

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Pfizer announces unrestricted access to patient assessment aids for mental disorders

As part of its commitment to improving the quality of patient care, Pfizer today announced that it will make available assessment scales used by physicians and others in the healthcare community to support the evaluation and diagnosis of patients suffering from certain mental disorders.

23 Jul 2010

Gene expression profiling may provide molecular diagnostic tool to diagnose depression

Blood tests have been extremely important tools aiding doctors in making medical diagnoses and in guiding the treatment of many diseases. However, psychiatry is one area of medicine where there are few diagnostic blood tests.New scientific fields may someday generate blood tests that can be used for these purposes. Some of the areas under increasingly intensive study are genetics, the study of variations in the genes that can be extracted from blood cells, and genomics like proteomics, the measurement of the levels of specific proteins in the blood, and gene expression profiling, which measures the levels of RNA produced from DNA as an indication of the level of the "activity" of particular genes.

23 Jul 2010

Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories begins marketing bupropion hydrochloride extended release tablets

Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd. has started shipping bupropion hydrochloride extended release tablets. This product was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Sun Pharma's Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA). These bupropion hydrochloride extended release tablets, 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg, are therapeutically equivalent to GlaxoSmithKline's Wellbutrin SR® Extended Release tablets.

22 Jul 2010

Actavis Group receives FDA approval to market Bupropion HCl SR tablets

Actavis Group, the international generic pharmaceuticals company, today announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to market Bupropion HCl Extended-Release tablets 100mg and 200mg. Distribution of the product will commence immediately.

22 Jul 2010

Forest Laboratories reports first-quarter diluted EPS of $0.39

Forest Laboratories, Inc., an international pharmaceutical manufacturer and marketer, announced that diluted earnings per share equaled $0.39 in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. Excluding the charge related to the United States Department of Justice investigations described below, and a charge of $50.0 million, or $0.17 per share net of tax, for a new product licensing fee, non-GAAP earnings per share for the first fiscal quarter were $0.95 per share.

20 Jul 2010

People with alcohol-related problems find comfort in speaking to clergy: Study

Persons with alcohol problems are finding comfort in speaking about their situation to clergy, a new study shows. Among 1,910 people with any alcohol-related problems, 14.7 percent said they used clergy services.The study, from researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and Saint Louis University, also indicates the majority of those who used services from clergy also used professional services at some point; only 0.5 percent used clergy services exclusively for their alcohol use-related problem.

15 Jul 2010

Anxiety disorders associated with higher risk of cardiovascular events, deaths in heart disease patients

Among patients with heart disease, anxiety disorders appear to be associated with a higher risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure and death, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

6 Jul 2010

FDA grants approval for first generic version of Effexor XR antidepressant capsules

On June 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic version of Effexor XR capsules (venlafaxine hydrochloride) to treat major depressive disorder.

30 Jun 2010

AstraZeneca, Targacept commence enrollment in TC-5214 Phase 3 clinical development for MDD

AstraZeneca and Targacept, Inc., today announced the enrollment of the first patient in the Phase 3 clinical development program for TC-5214, a nicotinic channel blocker.

23 Jun 2010

Hypertension linked to severity of bipolar disorders

Nearly half of patients hospitalized with bipolar disorder may suffer from hypertension, and the younger a person is diagnosed with the psychiatric condition the more likely they are to develop high blood pressure, according to a recent Michigan State University study.

11 Jun 2010

Excessive sleepiness more common in the U.S. than in Europe: Research

Excessive sleepiness is more common in the U.S. than in Europe, which raises concerns for public health and safety, according to a research abstract that will be presented Tuesday, June 8, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

8 Jun 2010

St. Jude Medical's Epiducer lead delivery system for neurostimulation therapy receives CE Mark approval

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced European CE Mark approval of its new Epiducer™ lead delivery system for neurostimulation therapy. Unveiled at the Neurosurgery 2010 Congress in Lyon, France, the Epiducer lead delivery system is the first of its kind, allowing introduction of S-Series perc-paddle leads as well as multiple lead arrays through a single percutaneous entry point.

27 May 2010

Combination therapy improves patients with depression symptoms: Study

New data presented today at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting suggests a benefit to combining L-methylfolate, a prescription medical food called Deplin, with an antidepressant at the start of treatment. This retrospective analysis showed a significantly greater improvement in depression symptoms in a shorter period of time, when patients with Major Depressive Disorder were started on combination therapy.

25 May 2010

Filing of Clinical Data's NDA for vilazodone accepted for FDA review

Clinical Data, Inc., today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for filing the Company's New Drug Application for vilazodone for the treatment of major depressive disorder.

24 May 2010

More than 44% Canadian seniors living in residential care homes diagnosed with depression: CIHI study

More than two in five (44%) Canadian seniors living in residential care homes are diagnosed with or have symptoms of depression, according to a new study released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

21 May 2010

Labopharm completes joint venture with Gruppo Angelini

Labopharm Inc. today announced that it has completed the previously announced transaction to establish a joint venture with Gruppo Angelini.

21 May 2010

Majority of patients experience depression following hospitalization for TBI: Study

During the year following hospitalization for a traumatic brain injury, a majority of patients experienced major depression, according to a study in the May 19 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on mental health.

19 May 2010

Combining medicine switch with cognitive behavioral therapy can reduce symptoms of depression: Study

More than one-third of teenagers with treatment-resistant depression - many of whom had been depressed for more than two years - became symptom-free six months after switching their medication or combining a medicine switch with cognitive behavioral therapy during a multicenter study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

18 May 2010

Labopharm's first-quarter fiscal 2010 revenues from product sales decrease $0.4M to $3.2M

Labopharm Inc. today reported its financial results for the first quarter 2010.

6 May 2010

Older adults with depression do not respond to emotional stimuli, says study

Scientists have found an important clue in the quest to understand why people who suffer from depression in later life are harder to treat and keep well in the long term.

5 May 2010