Depression

Can current guidelines for sleep, exercise, and screen time in childhood be linked to positive cognitive outcomes?

Prominent researchers conduct a review of antidepressant withdrawal incidence, duration, and severity. Results lead to call for new clinical guidelines.

Reanalysis of the original primary outcome measure in the STAR*D study suggests STAR*D findings inflate improvement on antidepressant medication and exclusion criteria in conventional clinical trials results in overestimation of antidepressant efficacy.

A new study finds ideal sleep duration differs in adolescents for peak mental health and academic outcomes.

An international study of college students reveals ubiquitous social and emotional challenges faced by young adults.

Findings point to the role of withdrawal symptoms and prescriber practices in long-term antidepressant use.

A new study finds that more than a third of Americans are taking prescription drugs that can cause depressive symptoms as a side-effect.

When controlling for social and family characteristics, separating children from parents into out-of-home care increases psychiatric issues, prescriptions, and criminal activity.

New research examines factors that make mindfulness interventions in school most effective for adolescent’s mental health outcomes.

STAT recently published an opinion piece arguing that the black box warning on antidepressants has led to an increase in adolescent suicide. It is easily debunked, and reveals once again how our society is regularly misled about research findings related to psychiatric drugs. STAT has lent its good name to a false story that, unfortunately, will resonate loudly with the public.

Study finds adults with a pro-inflammatory diet have a greater incidence of depression.

New research examines important factors of adherence when prescribing exercise to treat depression.

The only way out of the epidemic of feeling-people-turned-medicated-psychiatric-patients is to rebrand and reframe feeling as a cultural collective. And I believe it starts with our messaging as parents and our orientation toward shadow elements like anger and sadness. We have to model a conscious relationship to our own dark parts, and we have to show our children what it looks like to move through these spaces. Feelings can be messy, wild, and sometimes ugly to our constrained sensibilities.

During the past twenty years, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and American psychiatry have adopted a "medicalized" approach to preventing suicide, claiming that antidepressants are protective against suicide. Yet, the suicide rate in the United States has increased 30% since 2000, a time of rising usage of antidepressants. A review of studies of the effects of mental health treatment and antidepressants on suicide reveals why this medicalized approach has not only failed, but pushed suicide rates higher.

When I was training to be a child psychiatrist in the mid-1990s, childhood depression was considered to be rare, related to adversity, and generally unresponsive to pharmaceutical treatment. Since then much has changed. The psychiatrization of the pain and struggles involved in growing up has caused considerably more harm to young people than good. I believe the science is on my side in this conclusion.

Study details Medicaid-insured birth cohort’s exposure to psychiatric medications and mental health services.

Counter-messaging and a lack of critical analysis may lead doctors away from suggesting exercise for depression.

The BMJ’s clinical editor takes issue with uncritical media coverage of antidepressant network meta-analysis, outlining reporting missteps.

A new study, published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, found that antidepressant efficacy was not dependent on severity.

Review of pediatric antidepressant studies finds the vast majority are negative on primary outcomes and an increased risk for suicidality.

Why do ineffective classification and intervention processes linger in school psychology, and what’s the alternative?

Higher levels of physical activity serve as a protective factor for the future development of depression.

A systematic review of literature and meta-analysis indicates that there is no clinically or statistically significant effect of antidepressant dose increase after nonresponse to initial treatment.

The type of diagnostic assessment used in research settings, either fully structured or semi-structured interview, may affect which participants in receive a diagnosis of major depression.

A new study investigates the relationships between early-home environmental factors and later-life physiological response to psychosocial stressors.