Posts tagged with 'antidepressants'
Recent research: six studies on depression – bereavement, pregnancy, bipolar disorder, suicide, & stress in hospital staff
11th December 2008
Five of these six studies are from last month's American Journal of Psychiatry. Kendler et al discuss the many similarities and only occasional differences between bereavement-related and other life event-related depression - an issue explored further in Maj's editorial. Li et al show that depression in pregnancy (exacerbated further by …
Draft SIGN non-pharmacological depression treatments guideline, 8th post: therapeutic alliance in the treatment of depression
25th September 2008
There was some discussion at the SIGN "Non-pharmacological management of depression" seminar about the possible importance of the therapeutic alliance in depression treatment. Professor Kevin Power said that SIGN had not found any good research that threw light on this issue. This is somewhat surprising because there is a fair …
Organization of teratology information specialists (OTIS)
29th August 2008
Teratology is the study of the effects that drugs, medications, chemicals and other exposures may have on the unborn child during pregnancy. Particulary when a mother is taking a medication that is helping her stay well, it can be a difficult decision whether or not to stop taking the medication …
Recent research: five studies on depression – including side-effects, young people, heart attacks, and bipolar disorder
28th August 2008
Here are the abstracts of five recent research studies on depression and antidepressants. The first confirms earlier work showing an increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding with SSRI's (particularly if also taking NSAID's). The second highlights the potential physical survival value of screening for and treating depression in people who have …
Recent research: OCD, writing & rumination, trauma & eating disorder, internet depression treatment, and sleep & PTSD
3rd July 2008
Simpson, H. B., E. B. Foa, et al. (2008). "A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Augmenting Pharmacotherapy in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder." Am J Psychiatry 165(5): 621-630. [Abstract/Full Text] Most OCD sufferers treated adequately with antidepressants will continue to have clinically significant symptoms. This study shows that adding exposure and …
Recent research: adolescent depression, overweight, antidepressants in pregnancy, and recovery from stroke
2nd July 2008
Norquist, G., T. G. McGuire, et al. (2008). "Cost-Effectiveness of Depression Treatment for Adolescents." Am J Psychiatry 165(5): 549-552. [Free Full Text] Thoughtful (and freely accessible full text) editorial discussing the cost-effectiveness of pharmacological and psychological treatments for adolescents suffering from depression. Unfortunately different research studies suggest different conclusions, and …
Is depression a problem of meaning or of medicine?
1st June 2008
I'm impressed by this description of personal experience with depression on Julian Sheather's blog. Julian is deputy head of ethics at the British Medical Association. The blog entry raises thoughtful issues about autonomy, antidepressants and the oversimplified argument whether depression is best seen as a biochemical imbalance in the brain …
Fish oil and depression – take at least 1 gm of EPA daily
26th March 2008
A recent study in the British Journal of Nutrition (Rogers, Appleton et al. 2008) throws doubt on the value of fish oil supplementation as a treatment for depression. The authors stated " ... while a majority of previous trials have focused on individuals with severe depression in clinical settings and …
Some interesting articles from February ‘08
17th March 2008
Here are details and links for a couple of dozen mainly February articles that I found interesting. Most of these articles (and many others) are also listed on my searchable Connotea online database. Barbui, C. M. D., T. A. M. D. Furukawa, et al. (2008). "Effectiveness of paroxetine in the …
Are antidepressants useless? – recent research
11th March 2008
"The truth is rarely pure, and never simple" Oscar Wilde There has been a lot of media publicity about the article on the value of antidepressants by Irving Kirsch and colleagues which was published in PLoS Medicine last month (Kirsch, Deacon et al. 2008). The authors wrote "We obtained data …