‘An implantable device called a vagus nerve stimulator may soon receive US government approval for treating people with severe bouts of depression.
But test results indicate that its effectiveness is far from certain, the New York Times reports.
“No more effective than a placebo”
The US Food and Drug Administration has already approved the implant device for the […]
‘Depression shortens life by unleashing a cascade of harmful effects on the body, and cutting-edge studies reveal exactly how the damage is done, a government scientist reported Monday.
Depressed women in their early 30s score significantly worse than those who are not depressed on physical tests tied to health threats — from cholesterol to glucose and […]
‘After three years of planning and a year of fundraising the Mental Health Foundation today launched a major new depression awareness campaign called Out of the Blue/Kia Marama.
The campaign aims to raise awareness of the signs of depression to help people recognise when they, or someone close to them, is depressed.
One in five women and […]
‘More than half of people with chronic cough-a nagging cough that can last for months or even years-suffer from depressive symptoms, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 23.
The study of 100 people with chronic cough that had lasted an average of 9 years found that […]
‘Investigational device-based therapies will lead to entirely new treatment options for chronic depression sufferers as early as late 2006, according to an American Psychiatric Association symposium to be presented this week on treatment-resistant depression.
Researchers said that developing brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), vagal nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation are emerging […]
‘The Food and Drug Administration may soon approve a medical device that would be the first new treatment option for severely depressed patients in a generation, despite the misgivings of many experts who say there is little evidence that it works.
The pacemaker-like device, called a vagus nerve stimulator, is surgically implanted in the upper chest.
Its […]
‘Women who take Prozac or certain other antidepressants late in pregnancy raise the risk that their babies will suffer jitteriness, irritability and serious respiratory problems during their first couple of weeks, researchers say.
Babies born to women taking antidepressants in the last three months of pregnancy were three times more likely to develop drug-related symptoms than […]
‘The treatment, called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, involves applying powerful electromagnets directly to the skull.
The procedure isn’t effective for everyone. But “the ability to offer hope and some chance of improvement when other treatments have failed is something really significant,” Lisanby said.
‘Jumper Cable’ for the Brain
TMS uses electromagnets to send pulses of energy directly […]
‘Commonly used antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Prozac appear to be linked to an increased risk of abdominal bleeding, researchers reported Monday.
These drugs belong to the class of medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which work by preventing the re-absorption of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical that lets nerve cells within the brain […]
Kuro5hin has a good post on Demystifying Depression:
‘”Depression is a mood disorder”, so start many descriptions of the illness. That is a gross understatement. Depression does indeed seriously affect your mood, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. A clinical depression is an incapacitating illness, affecting your ability to perform tasks that require […]