Depressed people are known to have fewer of the ‘feel-good’ receptors for serotonin. Jon-Kar Zubieta, MD, PhD, University of Michigan, reports that depression is rooted in genetic and molecular factors and are unique for each individual. Using PET (positron emission tomography) scans, Zubieta studied patients who met the criteria for major depression, but had not […] Read more

Bullying is most often discussed as being an adolescence issue and left behind once out of high school. Research now indicates that effects of bullying may linger well into early adulthood. Allison Dempsey, doctoral student, University of Florida College of Education, studied the effects of bullying on 210 college students. Primarily, Dempsey asked participants about […] Read more

For years tobacco company advertisements suggested that smoking would help a person to relax. Now researchers suggest that smoking will also increase a person for the risk of depression. Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, professor, University of Navarra, based his research on a 6 year study of 8,556 university graduates (average age of 42)  over a 6 year period. […] Read more

Insomnia is the most commonly reported sleep disorder. Approximately, 30% of adults have insomniac symptoms. Traditional thinking suggested that insomnia is the result of depression. Jules Angst, MD, Zurich University Psychiatric Hospital, Switzerland, conducted 6 interviews with 591 young adults over a 20 year period. He was able to distinguish 4 subtypes of insomnia: One-month […] Read more

As Iraq vets return with increasing incidence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) health care use and costs have increased. Most PTSD research has focused on male veterans and female assault victims–leaving the impact on other sectors of the population uncertain. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) interviewed […] Read more

One of the difficulties in treating depressed patients is that drug treatments can take weeks before the beneficial effects are seen. Sungho Maeng, affiliated with the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology and Experimental Therapeutics, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Health & Human Services, Bethesda, […] Read more

Despite the numerous antidepressant medications available for treatment many depressed patients continue to experience symptoms of depression. Charles B. Nemeroff, affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, and associates, reviewed 34 double-blind randomized controlled trials that compared a single serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), venlafaxine, to other […] Read more

Depression is often accompanied with a sense of hopelessness, which sometimes leads a patient to discontinue taking their antidepressant medication. James E. Aikens, PhD, associate professor of Family Medicine, University of Michigan Health System, studied 573 depressed patients from 37 different practices. The patients were given one of the antidepressants: fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), or […] Read more

An elevated level of a white blood cell count can indicate a major infection or a serious blood disorder such as leukemia. Now it is thought that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be just as good of an indicator of a person’s long term health status. Joseph Boscarino, PhD, MPH, Geisinger Senior Investigator, examined the […] Read more

For reasons still unknown, the brain neurotransmitter serotonin is critical to the development and treatment of depression and chronic anxiety. An even a bigger mystery is why more women than men are affected by depression and chronic anxiety. Hristina Jovanovic, Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute, believes he may be able to show why women are […] Read more