BackgroundMindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a cost-effective psychosocial prevention programme that helps people with recurrent depression stay well in the long term. It was singled out in the 2009 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Depression Guideline as a key priority for implementation. Despite good evidence and guideline recommendations, its roll-out...
Objectives: Converging research suggests that mindfulness training exerts its therapeutic effectson depression by reducing rumination. Theoretically, rumination is a multifaceted construct thataggregates multiple neurocognitive aspects of depression, including poor executive control,negative and overgeneral memory bias, and persistence or stickiness of negative mind states.Current measures of...
OBJECTIVE: The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine has rapid antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar depression. Clinical predictors may identify those more likely to benefit from ketamine within clinically heterogeneous populations. METHOD: Data were analyzed from 4 studies of treatment-resistant inpatients with...
The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of the novel Buddhism-based walking meditation (BWM) and the traditional walking exercise (TWE) on depression, functional fitness, and vascular reactivity. This was a randomized exercise intervention study. The study was conducted in a university hospital setting. Forty-five elderly participants aged 60-90 years with mild-to-moderate...
A re-balance of postsynaptic serotonin (5-HT) receptor signalling, with an increase in 5-HT1A and a decrease in 5-HT2A signalling, is a final common pathway multiple antidepressants share. Given that the 5-HT1A/2A agonist lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), when repeatedly applied, selectively downregulates 5-HT2A, but not 5-HT1A receptors, one might expect LSD to similarly re-balance the...
(R,S)-ketamine produces rapid and significant antidepressant effects in approximately 65% of patients suffering from treatment-resistant bipolar depression (BD). The genetic, pharmacological and biochemical differences between ketamine responders and non-responders have not been identified. The purpose of this study was to employ a metabolomics approach, a global, non-targeted determination of...
Despite the complexity and heterogeneity of mood disorders, basic and clinical research studies have begun to elucidate the pathophysiology of depression and to identify rapid, efficacious antidepressant agents. Stress and depression are associated with neuronal atrophy, characterized by loss of synaptic connections in key cortical and limbic brain regions implicated in depression. This is...
BACKGROUND: Preliminary evidence suggests intravenous ketamine has rapid effects on suicidal cognition, making it an attractive candidate for depressed patients at imminent risk of suicide. In the first randomized controlled trial of ketamine using an anesthetic control condition, we tested ketamine's acute effects on explicit suicidal cognition and a performance-based index of implicit...
BackgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, yet broadly effective treatments remain elusive. Up to 40% of patients with depression are unresponsive to at least two trials of antidepressant medication and thus have “treatment-resistant depression” (TRD). There is an urgent need for cost-effective, non-pharmacologic, evidence-based...
Stress and depression are associated with atrophy and loss of neurons in limbic and cortical brain regions that could contribute to the symptoms of depression. Typical monoamine reuptake inhibitor antidepressants have only modest efficacy and require long-term treatment, and are only weakly effective in blocking or reversing these structural changes caused by stress. Recent findings demonstrate...