Pharmacological Research
September 2015
R Rajkumar, J Fam, E Y M Yeo et al.
Depression and suicide are known to be intricately entwined but the neurobiological basis underlying this association is yet to be understood. Ketamine is an N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist used for induction and maintenance of general anaesthesia but paradoxically its euphoric effects lead to its classification under drugs of abuse. The serendipitous finding of rapid-onset...
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
August 24, 2015
Thorsten Barnhofer, Catherine Crane, Kate Brennan et al.
Objective: In patients with a history of suicidal depression, recurrence of depressive symptoms can easily reactivate suicidal thinking. In this study, we investigated whether training in mindfulness, which is aimed at helping patients “decenter” from negative thinking, could help weaken the link between depressive symptoms and suicidal cognitions. Method: Analyses were based on data from a...
Psychiatria Danubina
August 20, 2015
Kim Rod
BACKGROUND People whose chronic pain limits their independence are especially likely to become anxious and depressed. Mindfulness training has shown promise for stress-related disorders. METHODS Chronic pain patients who complained of anxiety and depression and who scored higher than moderate in Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as well as...
Indian Journal of Pharmacology
July 1, 2015
Girish H. Banwari, Prutha B Desai, P. Patidar
There is growing evidence to support the rapid, albeit short-lived antidepressant effect of subanesthetic dose of ketamine, a noncompetitive glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist in treatment-resistant unipolar and bipolar depression. Ketamine is known to cause transient mood elevation or euphoria, psychotomimetic effects, and dissociative symptoms, but its use in unipolar or...
Biological Psychiatry
July 1, 2015
Peter Nagele, Andreas Duma, Michael Kopec et al.
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists, such as ketamine, have rapid antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). We hypothesized that nitrous oxide, an inhalational general anesthetic and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, may also be a rapidly acting treatment for TRD. In this blinded, placebo-controlled crossover trial, 20 patients with TRD were...
Mindfulness
June 1, 2015
Stuart J. Eisendrath, Erin P Gillung, Kevin L. Delucchi et al.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, yet broadly effective treatments remain elusive. The primary aim of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) monotherapy, compared to sertraline monotherapy, for patients with acute MDD. This open-label, nonrandomized controlled trial examined a MBCT...
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 2015
Lisa Miller, Yakov A Barton
Diagnosis of depression has low reliability (kappa = 0.28) due to "covert heterogeneity," making the identification of sub-types a focus of research. Very high rates of moderate or sub-threshold depression among adolescents (35-45 % beyond the 20-25 % with MDD), prompt consideration of a potential sub-type of moderate sub-threshold depression, linked to adolescent development. Previously,...
May 6, 2015
S. Best
Treatment resistant depression (TRD) is a major public health issue, with comorbid OCD contributing to the general medical costs and severity associated with TRD. Recent research has investigated the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS and its variant rTMS) in ameliorating the symptoms of depression and OCD. Most studies have used TMS to facilitate electromagnetic stimulation of...
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
May 2015
Chittaranjan Andrade
Intranasal drug delivery (INDD) systems offer a route to the brain that bypasses problems related to gastrointestinal absorption, first-pass metabolism, and the blood-brain barrier; onset of therapeutic action is rapid, and the inconvenience and discomfort of parenteral administration are avoided. INDD has found several applications in neuropsychiatry, such as to treat migraine, acute and...
American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine
May 1, 2015
Nicole D. White
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) teaches the patient to recognize a deteriorating mood with the goal of avoiding self-perpetuating patterns of ruminative, negative thoughts and thus depressive disorders. MBCT was initially conceived as an intervention to prevent relapse of major depression, but it has since been studied in patients with current episodes of depression. MBCT has been...