Posted by pegasus on June 22, 2005, at 19:47:25
Newsweek put out a special issue about health this week, and they have an interesting one page article about depression research that is worth reading. They don't have the article on their web site, but you can pick up the issue on newstands this week.
Basically the article says that current research is looking into (and finding) gene markers for some types of depression, and different treatments for different types of depression. So, I guess there's a gene that if you have it and have depression, then Prozac etc. doesn't really work for you. Also they've identified a protein that seems to be related to the effectiveness of SSRIs, so they're figuring some things out about exactly how these meds work.
One thing I found particularly interesting is that they're looking into different types of depression. So, some depressions are predominantly an inability to enjoy anything, while others have less of that and more suicidal ideation, etc. I guess the theory is that perhaps the different depressions are caused by different things and/or could be treated differently.
They do put a good plug in for therapy at the end of the article.
pegasus
poster:pegasus
thread:517227
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050622/msgs/517227.html