Journal of affective disorders
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On January 12, 2010, a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Republic of Haiti and destroyed Port-au-Prince, the capital and others cities across the country. While some studies have examined the long-term traumatic effects of the seismic event on children and adolescents victims, so far no study has examined the consequences on adults generally. As such, this study aims to investigate the traumatic consequences of the earthquake among adults related to degree of exposure, peritraumatic distress, depressive symptoms and sociodemographic factors two and a half years after. In addition, predictive factors of PTSD and depressive symptoms were also identified. ⋯ This study found that psychological symptoms are frequent event 30 months after the earthquake. The different mental health care providers, the public health ministry, NGOs working on the ground in Haiti should design programmes in order to aid the psychological wellbeing of the population focussing on youth, older and retired adults, females, people with low levels of education and those who do not work.
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Recent research has seen low-dose ketamine emerge as a novel, rapid-acting antidepressant. Ketamine, an N-methy-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, leads to effects on the glutamatergic system and abnormalities in this neurotransmittor system are present in depression. This article aims to (1) review the clinical literature on low-dose ketamine as a rapid-acting antidepressant in affective disorders, (2) provide a critical overview of the limitations of ketamine and research attempts to overcome these (3) discuss the proposed mechanisms of action of ketamine and (4) point towards future research directions. ⋯ Current and future research studies are using ketamine as a promising tool to evaluate the glutamatergic neurotransmittor system to learn more about the pathophysiology of depression and develop more specific rapid-acting antidepressant treatments.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of music therapy during vaginal delivery on postpartum pain relief and mental health.
Childbirth is an important experience in a woman's life, and unfavorable birth experiences have been shown to negatively impact postpartum maternal health. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of music therapy on postpartum pain, anxiety level, satisfaction and early pospartum depression rate. ⋯ Using music therapy during labor decreased postpartum anxiety and pain, increased the satisfaction with childbirth and reduced early postpartum depression rate. Music therapy can be clinically recommended as an alternative, safe, easy and enjoyable nonpharmacological method for postpartum well-being.
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The subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and its connected circuitry have been heavily implicated in emotional functioning in adolescent-onset major depressive disorder (MDD). While several recent studies have examined sgACC functional connectivity (FC) in depressed youth at rest, no studies to date have investigated sgACC FC in adolescent depression during negative emotional processing. ⋯ Adolescent depression is associated with biased processing of negative stimuli that may be driven by sgACC dysregulation and may possibly lead to an imbalance among intrinsic functional brain networks. This work also establishes the use of combining neuroimaging and cognitive behavioral modeling methods to investigate cognitive and neural differences between psychiatric and healthy populations.
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Prior to recent FDA approval of lurasidone for treatment of bipolar depression there were only two approved treatments for this condition (quetiapine and olanzapine-fluoxetine combination), and these were as likely to provide therapeutic benefit as adverse effects. We assessed the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of lurasidone for major depressive episodes associated with bipolar I disorder, using number needed to treat (NNT, for benefits), number needed to harm (NNH, for harms), and likelihood of being helped or harmed (LHH, ratio of NNH to NNT, for trade-offs between benefits vs. harms). ⋯ NNT, NNH, and LHH help quantify relative benefits (efficacy) and harms (side effects), thus placing lurasidone findings in research studies into clinical perspective. Lurasidone, compared to other treatments approved for bipolar depression, yielded comparable benefits (all had single-digit NNT vs. placebo for response or remission), and less risk of harm (double-digit or greater NNHs with lurasidone compared to single-digit NNHs for sedation with quetiapine and for ≥7% weight gain with olanzapine-fluoxetine combination), and thus a substantially more favorable LHH (> or >1) with lurasidone monotherapy and adjunctive therapy, compared to quetiapine and olanzapine-fluoxetine combination (LHH