Researchers are closer to having a more precise method for efficiently treating depression, a new study suggests. For some people with depression, finding the right medication can be a process of trial and error lasting for months or even years, which can worsen symptoms.
Participants with this biotype also performed worse on executive function tasks that assessed how well they could manage thoughts or behaviors, make decisions or suppress distraction, Williams said. They also had the best response to the antidepressant venlafaxine. There was also a biotype distinguished by lower levels of activity in the brain circuit that manages attention. This biotype was linked with more mistakes on tasks requiring sustained attention, and less of a chance of improving with therapy. People with this biotype may need medication for the dysfunction first so they can gain more from therapy, said Ma, the Beth and George Vitoux Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago.
“Depression is a lot of different things with a lot of different causes, biological changes and treatments,” said Dr. Richard Keefe, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, who wasn’t involved in the study.The study, though “sophisticated and very well done,” does have several key problems, including the low number of people enrolled in treatment, said Dr.
Studies can only do so much at a time, Alpert acknowledged, but addressing these shortcomings incrementally would help continue advancements toward precision psychiatry.The study’s methods and findings are years away from being applied to direct patient care, experts said, but there is funding for such efforts.
For now, people with depression should know “there is continued progress being made” toward efficiently getting patients effective treatment, Alpert said. If you’re struggling, talk with a mental health professional about your options. Voters across mainland France were casting ballots Sunday in the first round of exceptional parliamentary elections that could put the government in the hands of nationalist, far-right parties for the first time since the Nazi era.The sound you might have heard after the presidential debate this past week was of voters falling between a rock and a hard place.