Antidepressants Update

Peter ForsterMajor Depression, Treatments of Depression, Website Update

I just wanted to make a quick note that I recently posted a major update of the information on this site about antidepressants. This follows the recent introduction of a few interesting new antidepressant medications. I hope to expand that by adding a page talking about atypical antipsychotics and perhaps other classes of medications routinely used in this practice. Since …

SAMe – S-adenosyl-methionine

Peter ForsterMajor Depression, Treatments of Depression

S-adenosylmethionine, or SAM-e for short, is one of the few nutritional supplements that has good clinical research to support its safety and effectiveness. Although SAM-e is used for many purposes, we are particularly interested in it as a compound that may have antidepressant properties. S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is involved in many reactions that involve methylating chemicals (transferring a methyl group to the …

Aripiprazole for Late Life Depression

Peter ForsterMajor Depression, Treatments of Depression

A study suggests that aripiprazole augmentation may be an effective strategy for treating major depression in older adults. The article has generated a lot of interest because of evidence suggesting that late life major depression may be different from major depression in early adulthood. Cognitive impairment, including memory troubles and trouble with planning and decision making (executive function), seems to …

Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy

Peter ForsterBest Practices, GPS Update, Major Depression, Treatments of Depression

I have just posted another page on the site devoted to orienting patients to types of psychotherapy that we may recommend for them. This most recent page talks about Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy, an approach to the treatment of patients with chronic depression that many people have benefitted from during the course of their treatment at Gateway Psychiatric. …

Ketamine for Depression Update

Peter ForsterGPS Update, Major Depression, Treatments of Depression

Probably the most exciting development in psychopharmacology in years is the discovery of the dramatic effects of ketamine on depression. However, a recent report from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Task Force on Novel Biomarkers and Treatments highlights not only the reason for the excitement about ketamine but also the significant areas of uncertainty that make it not yet ready to …

Self Injury is the 8th Leading Cause of Death

Peter ForsterMajor Depression

Self injury (including suicide) is the 8th leading cause of death in this country. It is time to do something about it. An article just published online in the prestigious journal JAMA Psychiatry makes us drawn case that our fascination with trying to come up with clear answers to questions that may ultimately be impossible to answer (what a person’s …

SSRI Antidepressants and Pregnancy – 2015

Peter ForsterMajor Depression, Physical Conditions and Health, Treatments of Depression

A recent study concludes that there may be some good news about the impact of SSRI antidepressants on the fetus in women who are pregnant. The authors used national registry data to examine the relationship between pre-birth SSRI treatment and pregnancy complications while controlling for the effects of the psychiatric diagnoses related to SSRI use. Some previous studies had just compared people who took …

Brexpiprazole Updated

Peter ForsterMajor Depression, Treatments of Depression

The FDA recently announced approval of the medication (brexpiprazole or Rexulti) both for the treatment of schizophrenia and as an adjunct to antidepressants in the treatment of major depression. The simultaneous approval of the medication for both indications is quite unusual. Brexpiprazole has a complicated pharmacology. Similar to aripiprazole (Otsuka’s atypical antipsychotic which recently came off patent and which this …

ABCB1 Gene Predicts Antidepressant Response

Peter ForsterBasic Science, Major Depression, Psychobiology, Testing, Treatments of Depression

An article that will soon appear in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that it may be possible to predict who will respond to different antidepressants using a genetic test. The study looked at whether by testing for specific genetic variants of a protein involved in transporting drugs and other potentially toxic substances into and out of cells and across the blood …

Another Blood Test for Depression

Peter ForsterDiagnosis, Major Depression, Testing

We ran across a recent article that promised a “blood test for depression” and thought how strange it was that this article was being republished in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.  After all we wrote about a blood test for depression based on an article that appeared in translational psychiatry just a few months ago. Imagine my surprise when I …