depression

A meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal concludes that the most effective way to discontinue antidepressant treatment in people with remitting depression is to gradually reduce the dose in combination with psychological therapy. Furthermore, this strategy proved to be just as effective in preventing relapses into depression as continuing medication. The study was based on data from more than 17,000 adults with depression and anxiety in remission, although the evidence for the latter disorder was not as robust. 

A new article published in eClinicalMedicine measures mental health problems in the Gaza Strip among the population over 40 years of age before and after the genocide committed by Israel. The study indicates that the proportion of these adults experiencing high levels of distress has tripled in the last five years, with a peak following the escalation of the massacre since October 2023. It was already known that chronic stress factors affecting victims pose a serious threat to mental health, but no longitudinal study had yet been conducted comparing distress in the same individuals before and after the genocide.  

Different antidepressant drugs cause different side effects in the body, in parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure or body weight, according to a meta-analysis published by The Lancet. For example, agomelatine administration is associated with weight loss, while other molecules such as maprotiline are associated with weight gain. The research brings together 151 studies and 17 reports from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including more than 58,000 people and comparing 30 antidepressant drugs with a placebo.

Large language models—artificial intelligence systems based on deep learning—could be useful in detecting mental health risks such as depression and suicide risk in narrative tests of patients undergoing psychiatric treatment. This is one of the conclusions of research published in JAMA Network Open, which also shows the potential of embeddings — a natural language processing technique that converts human language into mathematical vectors — to achieve the same end.

Research involving more than 200 patients with depression, whose symptoms had not improved after NHS talk therapy shows that those who took part in eight group sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy saw their depressive symptoms reduced, compared with those who received treatment as usual. The study is published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

People with dementia who are prescribed a specific type of antidepressant experience a faster cognitive decline than people who do not use these drugs, according to a study published in BMC Medicine. In particular, prescriptions for higher doses of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a type of antidepressant, were associated with a higher risk of severe dementia, fractures and mortality. The analysis includes data from more than 18,000 patients from a Swedish database between 2007 and 2018.

Unmarried people - whether single, divorced/separated or widowed - have a higher risk of having depressive symptoms than married people, says an international study. The paper, published in Nature Human Behaviour, includes data from more than 100,000 adults in China, Indonesia, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, the UK, the USA and the UK.

A phase 2 clinical trial has tested the efficacy and safety of a transcranial magnetic stimulation device used at home to treat major depression in 174 patients. After dividing them into two groups, one group received the treatment and the other a placebo procedure. After ten weeks, both groups had improved their symptoms, but the improvement in the active treatment group was 0.4 points greater on the Hamilton depression scale. According to the authors, who publish the results in the journal Nature Medicine, ‘it could potentially serve as a first-line treatment for major depression’.

Ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, a new series of six articles published in The Lancet Public Health calls for a shift in the narrative. Experts advocate for moving beyond framing suicide solely as a mental health issue, emphasizing the need to recognize the impact of social factors such as poverty, debt, addiction, homelessness, abuse, discrimination, and social isolation.

A brain study of 23 people with treatment-resistant depression while they listen to classical music has identified the antidepressant mechanisms of this music. Using intracranial recordings and electroencephalogrammes, the researchers concluded that listening to classical music synchronises neuronal oscillations between the auditory cortex - responsible for processing sensory information - and the reward circuit - responsible for processing emotional information. "The improvement of depressive symptoms was not linked to the emotion of the music itself but was correlated with the patient’s level of music enjoyment," says the study published in Cell Reports.