Three trials provide guidance on race, ethnicity: in STEP-BD, response to treatment for psychosis was 40% for white patients and 0 for black patients.
PHOENIX--Teasing out any differences in the success of psychiatric treatment by race or ethnicity is hampered by a dearth of data on minorities, but secondary analyses of major studies on depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia provide some insights. Across the three studies, blacks and Hispanics in the...

Pregnancy not tied to risk of mental illness.
Pregnancy does not raise the risk of developing any of the most prevalent mental disorders, with the notable exception of postpartum depression, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry. "Pregnancy is traditionally viewed as a stressful period that may provoke mental illness. However, [except...

Why bother? Kathleen Norris explores how an ancient concept of spiritual malaise speaks to us today.
Writer Kathleen Norris admits that the spiritual concept of acedia is difficult for the modern mind to grasp. "It's sort of untranslatable," she says, with a clutch of English words--including torpor, apathy, indifference, sloth, despair, depression--approximating, but not capturing the fullness of the word as used by early Christian...

Maternal paroxetine unrelated to cardiac malformations.
MONTEREY, CALIF. -- There is no statistically significant association between paroxetine usage during the first trimester of pregnancy and an increased risk of cardiac malformations in the infants, according to a meta-analysis of nine studies. A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor frequently prescribed for depression and anxiety, paroxetine...

Tricyclic beat SSRI for Parkinson's patients.
PHOENIX -- Nortriptyline was more effective than paroxetine or placebo in treating depression in patients with Parkinson's disease, an 8-week pilot study of 52 patients found. The study, while small, is the largest placebo-controlled trial of treating depression in patients with Parkinson's disease and the first in...

Examining the link between drinking-driving and depressed mood.
BOTH ALCOHOL AND DEPRESSED MOOD exert deleterious effects on psychomotor performance. Numerous studies have identified the strong impact of alcohol on the skills needed for safe driving and on collision risk (e.g., Borkenstein et al., 1964; Mann et al., 2001). Depression also has important adverse effects on psychomotor performance,...

Metabolic syndrome may hasten 'neuroaging'.
CHICAGO -- Older people with metabolic syndrome are significantly more likely to experience depression and deficits in cognition and function as they age than are their healthier peers. The presence of metabolic sydrome explained up to 34% of the age-related declines that Dr. Matheus Roriz-Cruz observed in...

Mental ills, pregnancy studied.
Pregnancy does not raise the risk of developing any of the most prevalent mental disorders, with the notable exception of postpartum depression, according to the findings of a survey. Pregnant and postpartum women are widely considered to be vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, but no study to date...

Northstar neuroscience to trim its workforce again.
In an effort to appease unhappy shareholders, Northstar Neuroscience is laying off an additional 20 workers and focusing solely on advancing its investigational device for cortical stimulation therapy for treatment of depression. The Seattle, WA-based medical device company laid off one-third of its workforce in January after...

Findings focus on depressed teens.
PHOENIX -- The only prospective, randomized, controlled comparison of treatment for resistant depression in adolescents is yielding new insights about efficacy and suicidality through several post hoc analyses. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine is the only medication approved to treat severe depression in adolescents. Until publication...