approximately 18.8 million American adults suffer from a depressive illness.l Depression is a disease of both the body and mind with symptoms that include feelings of worthlessness; helplessness; decreased energy; difficulty concentrating, eating, and sleeping; and suicide attempts. It is a major source of economic strain on the public health system in terms of lost work days, worker productivi...

Dear Editor: Extensive studies have measured antidepressant-like effects of chemical compounds to discover new drugs for depression treatment or to clarify the molecular mechanisms of depression. Most useful anti-depressants including tricyclics, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (NRIs), serotonin and noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors (SNRIs), a...

BACKGROUND Antidepressants are the first-line treatment for depression, yet medication-related side effects may be associated with antidepressant discontinuation before reaching a period of exposure believed to result in effectiveness. There is a gap in knowledge of the prevalence of side effects across commonly prescribed antidepressants and the effect of the type of antidepressant on the like...

Multiple drug therapy is common in clinical psychiatry practice and carries the risk of drug interactions. A drug interaction occurs when the effectiveness or toxicity of a drug is altered by the concomitant administration of another pharmacological agent. In a few cases drug interactions may prove beneficial, leading to increased efficacy or reduced risk of unwanted effects, and therefore cert...

BACKGROUND Adherence and persistence to therapy, or how well a patient follows provider directions on frequency and time to discontinuation of prescribed medications, is associated with positive health outcomes, including decreased healthcare costs and patient mortality. A clear literature gap exists assessing adherence and persistence to antidepressants (ADs) in the major depressive disorder (...

Although antidepressant medications represent the cornerstone of treatment for patients with moderate to severe clinical depression, they also carry serious risks. There is evidence which suggests that antidepressants can, in rare instances, induce or exacerbate suicidal tendencies. Nine clinical mechanisms have been proposed through which this may occur. These are: (a) energizing depressed pat...

Background: The aim of the current study was to identify a possible locus of dysfunction in the visual system of depressed patients. Materials and Methods: Fifty Major Depressive patients aged 21–60 years and 15 age-matched controls took part in the study The diagnosis was obtained with the SCAN v 2.0. The psychometric assessment included the HDRS, the HAS, the Newcastle Scales, the Diagnostic ...

We are beginning to reap the benefits of the upsurge in multiand single-site clinical trials with newer pharmacological agents that began in the mid-1990s. Although we eagerly await publications on large industry-sponsored trials currently in progress, this is a good time to take stock of the current and older literature on pharmacotherapy for PTSD. The two major developments are publica­ tion ...

One of the great advances in psychiatry treatment over the past 50 years has been the growth in safe and effective pharmacological treatments. There are now many different antidepressants and antipsychotics, which have specific pharmacology even if this means overlapping between drug classes. However, the terminology used to describe this pharmacology has grown in a random way with little consi...

FDA has approved Azstarys (KemPharm), the first ADHD medication to combine two medications, 70% serdexmethylphenidate (SDX) and 30% immediate-release dexmethylphenidate (d-MPH), in a once-daily capsule for treatment of patients ages 6 years older. Because d-MPH is fully absorbed within about 2 hours, while SDX slowly over several drug provides both early onset action longer duration therapy.Dos...