Hundreds of genes have been newly linked to depression, shedding light on the origins of the condition and highlighting personality types that could be at risk.
The international study, involving more than two million people, is the largest of its kind. It could inform treatments for the condition, which affects one in five people in the UK and is the leading cause of disability worldwide.
Editorial. There are a number of efficacious pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for depressive disorder.3 Antidepressant drugs are recommended and frequently used as first-line therapy for adults with moderate to severe depressive disorder, and in the UK, about 80% of people in primary care receive an antidepressant prescription in the first year of diagnosis.4 However, a significant proportion of these prescriptions are for less than 30 days, while an adequate trial of antidepressants is generally recommended to be 6–8 weeks before changing or stopping the medication.3 A too short duration of treatment limits both the therapeutic effect 5 6 and increases the risk of withdrawal symptoms.
A number of factors contribute to the suboptimal treatment duration of antidepressant drugs, and the two most recognised contributing factors include the …... To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Commentary on: Osler M, Rozing MP, Christensen GT, et al. Electroconvulsive therapy and risk of dementia in patients with affective disorders: a cohort study. Lancet Psychiatry 2018;5:348–56.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Open access. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability worldwide. The cardinal features of MDD are depressed mood and anhedonia. Anhedonia is defined as a “markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities of the day”, and has generally been investigated on group-level using retrospective data (e.g. via questionnaire/interview). However, inferences based on group-level findings not necessarily generalize to daily life experiences within individuals.
To analyze the association of anxiety symptoms with health care use and costs in people aged 85 and older.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens details. To access full-text: click “Log in/Register” (top right hand side). Click ‘Institutional Login’ then select 'OpenAthens Federation', then ‘NHS England’. Enter your Athens details to view the article.
No study has gathered evidence from all randomized clinical trials (RCTs) with anti‐inflammatory drugs measuring antidepressant effects including a detailed assessment of side effects and bias.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens details. To access full-text: click “Log in/Register” (top right hand side). Click ‘Institutional Login’ then select 'OpenAthens Federation', then ‘NHS England’. Enter your Athens details to view the article.
Deficits in anticipating pleasure may be an important dimension of anhedonia and functioning in psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia and depression; however, inconsistent findings have limited the conclusions that can be drawn. We conducted the first systemic review and meta‐analysis of the extant literature for research comparing psychiatric groups to healthy control groups on anticipatory pleasure.
High levels of physical activity are linked to reduced risk of depression. The question is whether exercise has a direct protective effect or if the link simply reflects the fact that depressed people are less inclined to exert themselves. A mendelian randomisation study using a genetic instrumental variable derived from genome wide association studies and a measure of individual activity obtained from accelerometer recordings suggests that the relation is causal and that exercise does reduce risk of depressive illness. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Open access. There is emerging evidence for the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for depressive disorders. However, we know less of how this relation-focused therapy mode is experienced and what the patients themselves identify as helpful. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore adolescents’ experiences of factors promoting improvement in psychodynamic therapy.
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Open access. Depression, which is common following acquired brain injury (ABI), has been shown to predict cognitive impairment, rehabilitation outcome, and quality of life. Whilst many studies have examined links between depression and cognitive–affective processing in the non‐ABI population, their applicability to this important clinical group, where cognitive difficulties can be marked, remains unknown. Here, we investigated biases in prospective cognition, which is known to be disrupted in (non‐ABI) depression yet important for well‐being.
Implications for research and practice:
> Active pain treatment improves sleep in people with dementia and depression.
> This study paves the way for improved methods; these results should be used as the basis for further exploration of this important issue.
> Future studies should include subjective evaluation of the benefits of pain treatment on sleep and explore improvements in related areas such as day-time functioning and falls. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
The authors evaluated improvement in irritability with antidepressant treatment and its prognostic utility in treatment-seeking adult outpatients with major depressive disorder.. Login at top right hand side of page using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens for full text.
Subanesthetic ketamine doses have been shown to have rapid yet transient antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression, which may be prolonged by repeated administration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antidepressant effects of a single ketamine infusion, a series of repeated ketamine infusions, and prolongation of response with maintenance infusions.. Login at top right hand side of page using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens for full text.
A review investigating dependence and withdrawal issues associated with five commonly prescribed medicines in England has been published by PHE (2019), covering the latest evidence and highlighting patients& experiences.
The findings indicate that antidepressants in particular are being prescribed in much greater numbers and for longer durations, whereas prescriptions of benzodiazepines and opioids have fallen in recent years (PHE, 2019). To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Clinical practice with young children benefits from knowledge about the prevalence of depressive disorders in childhood and that the well-established sex differences seen for depression in adulthood may not appear until adolescence.
Further research is needed to address possible changes in the prevalence of childhood depressive disorders around the world and following the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether these changes are differentially distributed across individuals and communities.
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