A psychiatrist’s look out should be trying to tackle childhood depression with counseling and not by prescribing antidepressants. In any case, it should not be feeling good at the recent fall of suicide rates because of label warnings on antidepressant pills. The irony here is parents and GPs give antidepressants like Prozac to children even after knowing that the drug may lead a child to commit suicide.
Antidepressant
TagPersistent Depression May be Curbed by Brain Stimulation
An experimental treatment called deep brain stimulation may help individuals with severe depressions who do not respond to standard types of treatment. This is reported by Canadian investigators. Four of six severely depressed patients underwent deep brain stimulation. This stimulation involves surgically implanting electrodes in a targeted area of the brain thought to be involved in depression. They experienced a “striking and sustained” let-up in their depression, as investigators report in the medical journal Neuron. Despite treatment with antidepressant medications, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, the six patients had been suffering with depression for between 1.5 to 10 years, the team informed.
Half of Depression Patients Are Cured by Drugs: Study Finds
A $35 million taxpayer-funded study was the largest trial of its kind ever conducted. It provided what industry-sponsored trials have rarely captured:– Rather than merely ask whether patients are getting better, the study asked what patients most care about — whether depression can be made to disappear altogether! Perhaps this was the much awaited study by physicians, patients and the pharmaceutical industry. Depression afflicts 15 million Americans a year, according to government statistics. It is counted that last year that about 189 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written. Because of treatment costs, lost productivity, absenteeism and suicide, the disease costs the nation $83 billion annually.
Chocolate May Increase Depression!
The yummy chocolates that give the chocoholics the maximum pleasure while rolling it into your mouth, gives no long time pleasure – especially those who are depressed and hope to draw pleasure out of relishing it for a moment! It is not an antidepressant after all! But do you know, for those who are stressed and clinically depressed, the high is short-lived and chocolate may even deepen the downer? A review reveals this. The findings straight away send a blow to the myth that chocolate is an antidepressant. It will be published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Let Anti-depressants Be A ‘No-no’ for Kids
A study denying to prescribe antidepressants to children has an allusion to the article, ‘Shut up and take your pills’. Both studies strictly deny the use of Prozac or Praxil for moderate-to-severe or psychotic depression. In the first place, child depression needs to be wisely tackled by parents via advice, spending more time with children, regulating diet, and controlling anxiety and methods of improving sleep. Secondly, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence confirms regulatory advice on antidepressants, which should be carefully considered for administering children if they do not recover from depression even after four to six sessions. But they suggest a change in the psychotic therapy instead of shifting the domain of treatment to antidepressants.
Antidepressants to carry new warning
Antidepressant labels should warn young adults aged 18 to 24 that the drugs may increase their risk of suicide, the Food and Drug Administration said. The current warning states adolescents and children may suffer suicidal thoughts while taking the drug, the Food and Drug Administration wants that expanded to those 25 and younger in light of new findings, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The FDA has asked the makers of antidepressant drugs to add precautionary warnings to the prescription information for the drugs that are given to young people between 18 and 24 years of age during the first 1 to 2 months of use. In 2005 the FDA asked drug manufacturers to add a similar warning regarding children and adolescents prescribed antidepressants. Furthermore, the FDA stated that people currently taking antidepressants should not stop taking them, but consult their doctors if they have any concerns. Dr. Steven Galson, the FDA’s drugs chief said: Antidepressant medications benefit many patients, but it is important that doctors and patients are aware of the risks. The FDA’s proposal comes after their request in December to amplify warnings on antidepressants based on a series of clinical studies. The newspaper reported that — those studies, which focused on nearly 100,000 patients, found that increased suicidal thoughts occurred at early ages among antidepressant users while they decreased among older users. Manufacturers of antidepressants will now have 30 days to submit their revised product labels and revised Medication Guides to FDA for review. Image1 Image2 Source
Why can exercise be a form of therapy for the depressed?
If you an exercise freak, here’s a good news for you. Your love for exercise can actually come as a bonus for your health. Do you know, it stimulates the formation of new brain cells? It means, exercise can do the work of antidepressant for a depressed. And, if you love being lazy after hours of your non-physical office works, then better adopt exercising habit right away. If you experience mild to moderate depression, and not a clinical and acute one, keep those pills away and kick off that burning outs habits. That exercise has a similar effect of antidepressants on depression, is no new a finding. It has been established by previous research. But, what the new study has revealed is how this can happen! – i.e. how does exercise stimulates new brain cells production. Courtesy, Astrid Bj�rnebekk at Karolinska Institutet, for uncovering the underlying biological mechanisms that explain — why can exercise be a form of therapy for the depressed. To make this finding, Bj�rnebekk has also compared it with pharmacological treatment with an SSRI drug. She says, What is interesting is that the effect of antidepressant therapy can be greatly strengthened by external environmental factors. A finding, a statement is not as convincing as an explanation to it – this is exactly what the new study did. It clearly explains how exercise can have an effect of an antidepressant in mild to moderately severe depression. So, we can surely conclude that exercise is a very good complement to medicines – A bit of exercise a day can keep the doctor away. Image