DHEA may alleviate the symptoms of minor depression in HIV-positive patients, a new report suggests. DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone, is an unregulated steroid-like dietary supplement. It is used by individuals for a variety of purposes, including building muscles, reducing abdominal fat, improving blood sugar levels, and fighting aging. Judith G. Rabkin of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and colleagues performed an eight-week study, which involves 145 HIV-positive adults with mild depression. DHEA patients showed a higher response rate (56%) than placebo patients (31%), with men and women responded equally well to DHEA. “Overall, the results of this intermediate-term eight-month follow-up suggest that mood response is maintained with minimal and possibly nonspecific side effects, although long-term effects remain unknown”, the authors wrote in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
American Journal of Psychiatry
TagOmega-3 fatty acids may reduce depression in children
A pilot study in Israel found during a clinical research that treatment with omega-3 fatty acids might treat children with clinical depression. Dr. R. H. Belmaker, of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and colleagues have conducted the research that is first of its kind. During the research, twenty-eight depressed children of the age group 6 to 12 years were aimlessly given omega-3 fatty acids or placebo. The omega-3 fatty acid supplement that used in the research was a combination of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. Seventy percent of the children in the main treatment group showed decreasing depression.The placebo group had showed no reduction. Four children in the omega-3 group achieved reduction in depression. The American Journal of Psychiatry has published the research. During the experimentation, the children have showed no side effects as well.
Drug-combination treatment may not help in depression
If the depression patients have not recovered from two of the general treatments, they are at a little chance of successful treatment from a third medication. During the study, only sixteen percent of the patients showed the reduced symptoms of depression. Dr. Maurizio Fava of Massachusetts General Hospital, the author of the report in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggested that Patients should have a prior medical consultation before going for combination treatment. He says, further, that almost half of the patients who take antidepressants required a third drug. Patients opted for Celexa. If it did not work, they went to another antidepressant or continued with Celexa and added a second drug. In the third time, they took either mirtazapine or nortriptyline. Symptoms disappeared in twelve percent of the mirtazapine users and twenty percent of nortriptyline users.
Clozapine may cause heart risks and diabetes
Clozapine is the most effectual drug for the treatment of psychotic depression. The researchers of the University of Rochester Medical Centre have concluded a study, which showed that clopazine, has some side effects. This may cause some long-standing health problems. J. Steven Lamberti, the author of the study, said that clozapine increased the risk of metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syndrome further increases the risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The American Journal of Psychiatry has published the detail of the study.
Breakup grieving change women’s brain
Romantic breakup may trigger woman’s brain. It may be seen in the MRI scans. Arif Najib, of the University of Tubingen Medical Center in Tubingen, Germany has come out with this research that unsettled heartache coils into true clinical depression for some women. The American Journal of Psychiatry has published the report. Some women became more emotional victim than men did after romantic breakups. This puts another question to the scientists that is grief completely prologue to depression. If no, then why some women recover and some do not? Arif Nazib says further that the brain may have a malfunctioning of the normal circuitry to get rid of sadness of separation. The real sadness produces more pain than memories of the painful incidents. Women still inconsolable over the romantic relationship had the greatest brain changes. The brain changes during breakup depression are as equal as the changes with anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).