Depression (Clinical)

[Michaelangelica]

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Possible Genetic Predictor For Response To Lithium Augmentation In Depressed Patients

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 2, 2008) — As in most fields of medicine, psychiatry researchers are working to identify specific types of patients, through their individual genetic variations, that may better benefit from particular drugs or combinations of drugs than other patients.

Possible Genetic Predictor For Response To Lithium Augmentation In Depressed Patients

 

Alcoholics With Depression Less Likely To Stay Sober

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2008) — It’s hard to stay on the wagon when you’re depressed, according to a new study of problem drinkers.

Alcoholics With Depression Less Likely To Stay Sober

 

FDA Warnings Affected Prescriptions Of Antidepressants To Youth

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2008) — U.S. Food and Drug Administration warnings regarding the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children and adolescents taking antidepressants appear to have had modest and targeted effects on the intended populations, according to a new report.

 

"The possibility that antidepressant medications, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), increase the risk of suicidal behavior was first raised in several case reports of children and adults during the early 1990s," the authors write as background information in the article.

"In June 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that paroxetine hydrochloride not be used to treat young people because of potential increased risk of suicidal behavior, and in October 2004, the FDA issued a black box warning concerning all antidepressants for youth."

FDA Warnings Affected Prescriptions Of Antidepressants To Youth

 

If You're Feeling Helpless, It May Be Best To Be Alone

If You're Feeling Helpless, It May Be Best To Be Alone

Maybe this works for rats but I would be very wary of extrapolating such research to humans. It is a bit ambiguous as it is about how you learn helplessness not about the feeling of being helpless.

[Turtle]

Maybe this works for rats but I would be very wary of extrapolating such research to humans. It is a bit ambiguous as it is about how you learn helplessness not about the feeling of being helpless.

 

 

If You're Feeling Helpless, It May Be Best To Be Alone

...The way laboratory rats react to uncontrollable situations in which their behaviors have no influence on subsequent events has been researched in the past. Results show that rats that are exposed to a situation in which they are powerless, for example, electric shocks that they can't possibly avoid, have a more difficult time learning how to avoid them in the future than rats that were never exposed to situations of helplessness -- a phenomenon known as "learned helplessness."

 

I don't share your wariness because I think the information is about whether a group helps the individaul cope better or a single individual copes better with uncontrollable situations, and because I personally find isolation more effective at curbing(shortening) depressive episodes rather than the company of others. ;)

 

I vant to be alone. :)

[Michaelangelica]

OK

Rats that were exposed to uncontrollable conditions in pairs coped less well when they were no longer in uncontrollable situations than rats that were exposed to these situations alone.

 

You don't think the depression just feeds on itself then?

 

The next phase of the experiment is telling however

The next phase of the research examined the influence of a rat that had never been exposed to an uncontrollable situation on a rat that had.

 

These pairs of rats showed greater adaptability than pairs that had been exposed to helplessness as individuals or in pairs.

So being a social animal, we should find the company of people who had NOT learned to be helpless, - helpful !

 

So is this why they put a pile of depressives in group threapy together so they can all get more miserable and more helpless together??:shrug:

 

Of course you have heard of the grass seed that wanted "To be a lawn"'?

[Turtle]

OK

 

 

You don't think the depression just feeds on itself then?

 

Not in my experience, no. Compare a depressive episode with a wound on the skin and consider the treatment. I know of course there is wide variability.

 

 

So being a social animal, we should find the company of people who had NOT learned to be helpless, - helpful !

 

Well, the learned helplessness is a result of encountering uncontrollable circumstance(s), which is largely a matter of chance. Pardnering up with someone who has never faced adversity is I think a poor strategy.

 

So is this why they put a pile of depressives in group threapy together so they can all get more miserable and more helpless together??:eek:

 

Of course you have heard of the grass seed that wanted "To be a lawn"'?;)

 

:( The joke is a funny as group therapy is a stupid idea. ...IMHO of course. :D :eek2:

[Racoon]

Bottom line is depression is huge business.

BUT...

 

Unfavorable drug studies don't get into print: report - Yahoo! News

 

BOSTON (Reuters) - Nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies are never published in the medical literature and nearly all happen to show that the drug being tested did not work, researchers reported on Wednesday.

 

In some of the studies that are published, unfavorable results have been recast to make the medicine appear more effective than it really is, said the research team led by Erick Turner of the Oregon Health & Science University.

 

Even if not deliberate, this can be bad news for patients, they wrote in their report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

"Selective publication can lead doctors to make inappropriate prescribing decisions that may not be in the best interest of their patients and, thus, the public health," they wrote.

 

The idea that unfavorable test results are quietly tucked away so nobody will see them -- sometimes call the "file drawer effect" -- has been around for years.

 

The Turner team used a U.S. Food and Drug Administration registry in which companies are supposed to log details of their drug tests before the experiments are begun.

 

"It tells you where they placed their bets before they saw the data," Turner said in a telephone interview.

 

Of the 74 studies that started for the 12 antidepressants, 38 produced positive results for the drug. All but one of those studies were published.

 

REWRITTEN STUDIES

 

However, only three of the 36 studies with negative or questionable results, as assessed by the FDA, were published and another 11 were written as if the drug had worked.........

[Michaelangelica]

Bottom line is depression is huge business.

BUT...

 

Unfavorable drug studies don't get into print: report - Yahoo! News

VERY BIG

Antibiotics you take for a week. Drugs for mental health can be taken for years, if not life, and they are very difficult to get off once you are on them.

 

Look at the money made on Zyprexa so far. Even huge law suits have not put a dent in profits or sales.

 

The Old Hypericum, St John's Wort is good for mild depression, but the drug companies are always warning about it.

[Michaelangelica]

Genetics May Determine Antidepressants' Effectiveness

 

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Genetic variations that predict patient response to the two common antidepressant drugs citalopram (brand name Celexa) and venlafaxine (Effexor) have been identified by German researchers.

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The team at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich found that 11 variants in the gene for a protective transporter protein called P-gp, which removes drugs and other substances from the brain, compromise the effectiveness of these two drugs.

 

In the first part of the study, the researchers knocked out genes for P-gp in mice and gave them antidepressants. They found that brain concentrations of citalopram and venlafaxine were regulated by P-gp, indicating that the antidepressants were "substrates" of the transporter protein.

 

Next, the team. . .

Genetics May Show Antidepressants' Effectiveness - Medications: Prescription Drugs and Over the Counter Drugs on MedicineNet.com

[Michaelangelica]

Ketamine relieves depression within hours

 

* 12:57 08 August 2006

* NewScientist.com news service

* Roxanne Khamsi

 

 

A drug used as a general anaesthetic may also work as a remarkably rapid antidepressant, according to a preliminary study.

 

The drug’s hallucinogenic side effects mean it is unlikely to be prescribed to patients, but it could pave the way to new faster-acting antidepressants, the researchers suggest.

 

Ketamine is used as an animal tranquiliser, but is perhaps better known as an illicit street drug, sometimes called “special K”. Now researchers have found the drug can relieve depression in some patients within just 2 hours – and continue to do so for a week.

Ketamine relieves depression within hours - drugs-alcohol - 08 August 2006 - New ScientistAgain, a very small sample 17 people -nine treated.

 

A hormone treatment used to induce abortion could provide a rapid-acting treatment for depression.

 

The drug, called RU486, was one of two new rapid treatment strategies, revealed on Sunday at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies' annual meeting in Vienna, Austria.

Abortion drug could rapidly treat depression - health - 10 July 2006 - New Scientist

[Michaelangelica]

Duloxetine Does Not Relieve Painful Physical Symptoms In Depression, According To Current Analysis

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2008) — An analysis of the data which are available, published in the European Journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, discloses that the maker’s claims are not warranted.

Duloxetine Does Not Relieve Painful Physical Symptoms In Depression, According To Current Analysis

 

I was just reading about this herb in the latest richters herb catalogue.

It seems it likes acolder climate than mine, but I was tempted to give it ago. Rose scented roots sound dso cool

Clinical trial of Rhodiola rosea L. extract SHR-5 in the treatment of mild to moderate depression.

 

Clinical trial of Rhodiola rosea L. extract SHR-5 in the treatment of mild to moderate depression.

 

Nord J Psychiatry. 2007;61(5):343-8

 

Authors: Darbinyan V, Aslanyan G, Amroyan E, Gabrielyan E, Malmström C, Panossian A

 

The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of standardized extract SHR-5 of rhizomes of Rhodiola rosea L. in patients suffering from a current episode of mild/moderate depression. The phase III clinical trial was carried out as a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study with parallel groups over 6 weeks. Participants, males and females aged 18-70 years, were selected according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for depression, the severity of which was determined by scores gained in Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) questionnaires. Patients with initial HAMD scores between 21 and 31 were randomized into three groups, one of which (group A: 31 patients) received two tablets daily of SHR-5 (340 mg/day), a second (group B: 29 patients) received two tablets twice per day of SHR-5 (680 mg/day), and a third (group C: 29 patients) received two placebo tablets daily. The efficacy of SHR-5 extract with respect to depressive complaints was assessed on days 0 and 42 of the study period from total and specific subgroup HAMD scores. For individuals in groups A and B, overall depression, together with insomnia, emotional instability and somatization, but not self-esteem, improved significantly following medication, whilst the placebo group did not show such improvements. No serious side-effects were reported in any of the groups A-C. It is concluded that the standardized extract SHR-5 shows anti-depressive potency in patients with mild to moderate depression when administered in dosages of either 340 or 680 mg/day over a 6-week period.

 

PMID: 17990195 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Michaelangelica]

Possible Genetic Predictor For Response To Lithium Augmentation In Depressed Patients

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 2, 2008) — As in most fields of medicine, psychiatry researchers are working to identify specific types of patients, through their individual genetic variations, that may better benefit from particular drugs or combinations of drugs than other patients.

A new study, published in Biological Psychiatry's December 1st issue, investigated whether depressed patients with a particular genetic variation would better respond to the addition of lithium to their treatment regimen, as opposed to an antidepressant-only treatment.

. . .

[We] found that antidepressant non-responders with depression show a significantly better response to a subsequent lithium augmentation if they carry at least one C-allele as opposed those patients carrying two T-alleles, which is in line with the previous findings regarding this genetic polymorphism."

In other words, patients who carried a specific genetic variation, the C-allele, were more likely to get better with the addition of lithium to their treatment than patients with other variations of the GSK3B gene.

Possible Genetic Predictor For Response To Lithium Augmentation In Depressed Patients

[Michaelangelica]

As Depression Symptoms Improve With Antidepressants, Hopelessness Can Linger

 

ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008) — 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.

As Depression Symptoms Improve With Antidepressants, Hopelessness Can Linger

[Michaelangelica]

This study is a real worry:

back to the St. John's wort tea?

PLoS Medicine - Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration

Conclusions

 

Drug–placebo differences in antidepressant efficacy increase as a function of baseline severity, but are relatively small even for severely depressed patients.

The relationship between initial severity and antidepressant efficacy is attributable to decreased responsiveness to placebo among very severely depressed patients, rather than to increased responsiveness to medication.

PLoS Medicine - Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration

[Michaelangelica]

Anti-smoking drug Chantix adds suicide to it's warning label

21 Jan 2008 ... The anti-smoking drug Chantix, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2006, will in future carry a warning .

 

I have mentioned this before but this is a very big study and I think the link to age is new too.

Testosterone link' to depression

 

Hormones may alter brain chemistry

Older men with lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone in their blood may be more prone to depression, a study suggests.

 

A study of about 4,000 men aged over 70 found those with lowest testosterone were three times more likely to be depressed than those with the most.

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Testosterone link' to depression

[paigetheoracle]

In his Book 'How Sadness Survived', Dr Paul Keedwell suggests negative emotions are not all bad news because they give us greater resilience (Nietzsche 'What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger'), humility(acceptance of our limitations), compassion and empathy for others going through what we have and boosts our creative thinking skills, by making us think about the situation we failed at, again (If at first we don't succeed, it could be that we pulled the door towards ourselves rather than turned the handle and pushed i.e. tried another tactic).

 

In other words depression doesn't have to be the final nail in our coffin, unless we decide it is and make ourselves a victim by giving up all effort (commit suicide)

[Michaelangelica]

Possible Depression Test Discovered

Tuesday March 11, 2008

 

Researchers have discovered that a change in location of a protein in the brain could serve as a biomarker for depression. If their discovery pans out, it could allow for a laboratory test which would not only identify patients with depression, but could also rapidly determine if a particular antidepressant was helping them.

. . .

The study appears in the March 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Possible Depression Test Discovered

[Michaelangelica]

 

In other words depression doesn't have to be the final nail in our coffin, unless we decide it is and make ourselves a victim by giving up all effort (commit suicide)

i would prefer the coffin to the nail

 

Possible Depression Test Discovered

Tuesday March 11, 2008

Depression Blog

 

By Nancy Schimelpfening, About.com Guide to Depression since 1998

 

Researchers have discovered that a change in location of a protein in the brain could serve as a biomarker for depression. If their discovery pans out, it could allow for a laboratory test which would not only identify patients with depression, but could also rapidly determine if a particular antidepressant was helping them.

 

According to study author Mark Rasenick, a professor at the University of Chicago College of Medicine, a protein called Gs alpha, which mediates the action of neurotransmitters, is found in areas where it is less effective in depressed people. When people take antidepressants, the Gs alpha protein moves to areas where it can better help facilitate the action of neurotransmitters

.

Possible Depression Test Discovered

[Michaelangelica]

A huge number of links on the subject

The Health Library Mental Health and Behavior