TMS outcomes have seemed favorable for patients with treatment resistant major depression, but what are the long term effects of TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)? TMS is a non-invasive technique for stimulating brain activity in parts of the brain that seem to be turned off in depression – the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. TMS uses magnets to stimulate the brain and the …
Lithium Benefits for Health – NYT Article
Does lithium have benefits for health when it is found at small doses in the water? This is the subject of a recent article in the New York Time (september 13th, 2014). The article captured the attention of many readers of this blog and the companion one I write about mood disorders (moodsurfing.com). It was tantalizingly entitled,”Should We All Take a Bit …
Early Lithium Treatment for Bipolar – Better Outcomes?
Does early lithium treatment for bipolar lead to better outcomes? This is the question that researchers sought to answer by looking at a Danish database of health information. The Danish registry is a set of nearly complete health information on the population of Denmark (hence, studies using this database are more representative of the general population than studies from many …
Genetic Testing Guides Treatment for Bipolar or Depression
We have been using a relatively new assay from a company called Genomind (the Genecept test) in some of our patients with bipolar and/or depression. The test involves a saliva sample which is analyzed for ten gene variants that may be useful in guiding treatment. So far we find that in about half of the patients with treatment resistant depression …
Depression Costs US 200 Billion Dollars Per Year
A meta-analysis of more than 60 clinical studies covering almost 60,000 adult patients estimates that the total cost in the United States of the treatment of patients with depression is in the range of $188 billion to $200 billion. Roughly a third of all costs ($64 billion) are related to people with treatment-resistant depression, who represent only a fraction of all cases. The article, “A Review of the Clinical, Economic, …
TMS Not Effective for Depressed Patients with Anhedonia
TMS is a revolutionary treatment for major depression that is being significantly underutilized, but it is also a very expensive treatment that does not work for many patients with treatment resistant depression. One of the major issues impeding the use of TMS is the difficulty identifying patients who are likely to respond to treatment. In an earlier blog post we …
Simple Test May Predict Which Antidepressant Will Work
A simple laboratory test may predict which antidepressant will work best. This is the result of a study reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry by a team of Canadian and European researchers. The study was part of larger research program (Genome-Based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression – an effort to find biomarkers to guide medication selection) and it identified C-reactive …