An antidepressant is a medication used primarily in the treatment of depression. Depression can occur if some of the chemicals called neurotransmitters in the brain are not functioning effectively.
Why some antidepressants may initially worsen symptoms – New research helps explain a paradoxical effect of certain antidepressants–that they may actually worsen symptoms before helping patients feel better. These findings may help investigators fix the problem as well as create new classes of drugs to treat depression.
Talking therapy cuts depression — Cognitive behavioral therapy may help when antidepressants don’t – Depression is predicted to become the leading cause of disability in high income countries by 2030, and currently only a third of patients with depression respond fully to antidepressant medication.
Popular antidepressant might prevent heart failure – A medication usually used to help treat depression and anxiety disorders has the potential to help prevent heart failure. John Tesmer, research professor at the U-M Life Sciences Institute and professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the U-M Medical School, and his research team at the Tesmer lab found that paroxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sold under the name Paxil, inhibits G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), a protein kinase that becomes over-expressed when people have heart failure.
Depression associated with increased risk of stroke and stroke-related death – Depression significantly increases the risks of developing a stroke, and likely to be fatal. Depression with a number of other physical health problems raises stroke risk, revealed in a recent study.
Prescriptions for Antidepressants Increasing among Individuals with no Psychiatric Diagnosis – In Americans, there is a marked increase in antidepressant use among individuals with no psychiatric diagnosis, revealed by researchers. Americans are no strangers to antidepressants.
Anti-inflammatory drugs reduce effectiveness of SSRI antidepressants – Anti-inflammatory drugs, which include ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen, reduce the effectiveness of the most widely used class of antidepressant medications, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, taken for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders.
Researchers report widespread use of medications among pregnant women – There is widespread and increasing medication use among pregnant women, revealed by researchers from Boston University’s Slone Epidemiology Center, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Harvard School of Public Health,
Severe obesity not seen to increase risk of depression in teens — Study does find possibly greater vulnerability among white adolescents – According to a new study, severely obese adolescents are no more likely to be depressed than normal weight peers. The study, which has been released in the Journal of Adolescent Health, did find that white adolescents may be somewhat more vulnerable to psychological effects of obesity.
Antidepressants may not improve all symptoms of depression, UT Southwestern researchers find – Even people who show a clear treatment response with antidepressant medications continue to experience symptoms like insomnia, sadness and decreased concentration, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found after analyzing data from the largest study on the treatment of depression.
Use of Antidepressant Associated With Reduction in Menopausal Hot Flashes – Women who were either in the transition to menopause or postmenopausal experienced a reduction in the frequency and severity of menopausal hot flashes with the use of the antidepressant medication escitalopram, compared to women who received placebo.
