Antidepressants Do Not Work in Majority of People

A new study has found that a majority of depressed people do not get relief from antidepressants because these drugs have been oversimplified and treat depression in a generic manner instead of being given for specific types of the condition.

Eva Redei, psychiatry professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM) and colleagues exposed four genetically different strains of rats to chronic depression.

Depression - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders affecting approximately 340 million people in the world. No one is immune from depression - it occurs in people of all social classes, all countries and all cultural settings.

The team then examined the genes in brain regions and found they had increased or decreased due to stress. “This finding is clear evidence that at least in an animal model, chronic stress does not cause the same molecular changes as depression does,” Redei said. “This is a huge study and statistically powerful. This research opens up new routes to develop new antidepressants that may be more effective. There hasn’t been an antidepressant based on a novel concept in 20 years."

The study was presented at the Neuroscience 2009 conference recently.

Source-Medindia
RAS

Adolescent Depression - Causes - Affects - Depressed Teens - Treatment - FAQs
Adolescent depression is an ailment that occurs during the teenage characterized by persistent melancholy, disappointment and loss of self-esteem.

Depression Screening Test
Online Depression Screening Test tells if you have mild or chronic depression based on your depression symptoms. Learn how to deal with depression by using this self-assessment calculator.

Depression Calculator
A quick, simple and anonymous self-assessment health tool to assess the level of depression using the famous Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale.