The findings of a recent study with a small sample size (n=22) suggests a possible benefit of maintenance treatment with sertraline over placebo. After an acute treatment phase of 12 weeks responders were followed during the continuation phase of 6 months. The patients who maintained response were randomized to either placebo or continued on sertraline. None of the 9 subjects in the placebo group maintained response (no recurrence) during the 52-week randomization phase. In contrast, 5 of 13 subjects (38%) in the sertraline group remained well. A lot of controversy has been raised around the use of antidepressants for adolescents suffering .....read more »

Women are more often affected by depression and this gender difference is consistent across all age groups. Women are more likely than men to attempt suicide, but men are more likely to actually kill themselves. Women are more likely than men to have what are termed atypical symptoms of depression. Women are somewhat more likely than men to have seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Gorman, J M (2006). Gender Differences in Depression and Response to Psychotropic Medication Gender Medicine, 3 (2) DOI: 16860269 Gender differences in response to treatment Several articles have explored the topic of gender differences in terms of response to antidepressants. In a 12-week multicenter, .....read more »

The most consistently identified brain regions with different imaging techniques include areas of the anterior cingulate, dorsolateral, medial and inferior prefrontal cortex, insula, superior temporal gyrus, basal ganglia and cerebellum. In short: parts of the frontal and temporal cortex as well as the insula and cerebellum that are hypoactive in depressed subjects and in which there is increase in activity with treatment. In pictures: The Insula The Superior Temporal Gyrus The Anterior Cingulate The Prefrontal Cortex Basal Ganglia and Cerebellum How was this done? Three separate quantitative meta-analytical studies were conducted using the Activation Likelihood Estimation technique. Analysis was performed on three types of studies: (1) those conducted at .....read more »

On the Internet psycho education is as effective as cognitive behavior therapy in reducing symptoms of depression. The INTERNET is a useful tool in delivering interventions for depression. Cognitive behavior therapy was predicted to improve symptoms of depression and dysfunctional thoughts more than psycho education but depression literacy was found to be as effective as cognitive behavior therapy in reducing symptoms of depression. Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and many individuals with depression do not receive adequate treatment. Large scale intervention programmes on the Internet can benefit these individuals and prevent the disabilities associated with this disease. The .....read more »

In women’s magazines and health section of the daily paper, there is a shift toward the “medicalization” of deviation from women’s traditional roles, and the increasing description of mental illness in emotional, not medical, terms. Men’s depressive illness remained medical or psychiatric. In popular newspaper and magazine articles about depressive illness, description of women were that of the stereotype of the woman as the mother and wife. White, middle-aged women targets’ problems with marriage, motherhood, or menstruation replaced DSM-derived terms as indicators of the need for psychopharmaceuticals. These articles were analyzed using established coding methods.The popular articles about depression from a .....read more »

An increasing number of randomized controlled studies have clearly demonstrated that psychological interventions are effective in the treatment of depression. This can also be seen from the above figure: number of studies from 1970 to 2005 in the world (red line), and in the United States (blue line). A Dutch research group has made a database available of controlled and comparative outcome studies on psychological treatments of depression. The database can be accessed freely through the Internet. The data on the 149 included studies are presented in order to give other researchers access to the studies we collected, and to give background information .....read more »

This is the second post about mass media and psychiatry. The best and most informative news stories about depression are interviews with lay persons that suffer of have suffered this illness. Little attention has been paid to personal life stories about depression and to a gender perspective. The studies that have been done have focused primarily on women. The gendered representation of experiences with depression by men and women in three major Swedish newspapers showed differences and similarities between men and women. The women’s stories were more detailed, relational, emotionally oriented, and embodied. The portrayal of men was less emotional .....read more »

Patients should be informed that the only systematic and critical appraisal of RCTs demonstrates that there is currently no robust evidence to recommend a course of MT to alleviate symptoms of depression. This is the conclusion from a systematic review evaluating the evidence, from randomised clinical trials (RCTs), for the effectiveness of multiple sessions of classical European (Swedish) MT for the treatment of depression. What is massage therapy? Difficult to find out. It is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I found some information on taking care of your health. On another site a Dutch man was held responsible for inventing .....read more »

Light can have amazing effects and contrasts of light and dark. They can create beautiful effects or phenomena. This picture above is from a blog with 20 Most Incredible Light Phenomenas for your viewing pleasure. But light can also be used in depression. Bright light therapy is an excellent candidate for inclusion into the therapeutic inventory available for the treatment of nonseasonal depression today, as adjuvant therapy to antidepressant medication. This was the result of a recent systematic review. To me light therapy for nonseasonal depression was new, which inspired the recent post on this blog about this topic. Light therapy can .....read more »

Physical fatigue or loss of energy is included as a single item in the DSM–IV criteria for major depressive disorderSome think of lack of concentration as a mental form of fatigue and lack of concentration is also a symptom of depressionAnhedonia is an inability to experience pleasure from normally pleasurable life events. This is considered to be a core symptom of depression. Some describe it as emotional fatigueAtypical depression is associated with hypersomnia, weight gain or increase in appetite, inertia, and leaden paralysis (i.e., severe lethargy and fatigue; heavy, weighted-down feeling in arms and legs)Patients with atypical depression are significantly .....read more »