Half of Teens Treated for Depression Will Relapse: Study

Although almost all teens who were treated for major depression initially recovered, about half ended up suffering a relapse within five years, a new study found. And those recurrences were more likely to strike girls than boys, the researchers found.

"We've known for a long time that people are going to revert back to depression -- that 50 percent would relapse even though they had recovered. I don't think that surprised many people," said Keith Young, vice chair for research in the department of psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Young was not involved with the study.

Study lead author John Curry, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, said the findings point up the "need to develop treatments that will prevent recurrence of second depression." Although some of those treatments may be coming down the pipeline, Young emphasized that the new study provides a clue as to what clinicians could be doing better.

"People on short-term treatment programs that didn't really follow through didn't do as well in the long run. Big studies like this give clinicians justification for really pushing people to stay in the programs," said Young. "It's like when you're taking an antibiotic, you have to take it all even if you [start] feeling better. The idea is to treat adolescent depression aggressively until all symptoms are gone and the person is better."

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Protein responsible for brain cells growth may lead to new antidepressants

A new study has suggested that a protein involved in the growth and development of brain cells could also play a role in depression and provide a possible target for antidepressants. Ron Duman and colleagues at Yale University compared post-mortem brain samples from 21 people who had been depressed and 18 people of the same age.

The group looked for differences in gene expression by comparing levels of messenger RNA-the middle-man between gene and protein production-throughout the entire genome, reports New Scientist.

While Duman's team found several hundred differences, most striking were levels of mRNA for a particular protein, MKP-1, which inhibits a pathway involved in neural growth and development. The brains of people with depression contained twice the amount of other people.

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Antidepressant Gets Nod for Treatment of Back Pain

The FDA has approved duloxetine hydrochloride (Cymbalta), an antidepressant, to treat chronic back pain and osteoarthritis pain. The FDA granted the new indication based on results of four double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trails in which patients randomized to duloxetine reported a greater reduction compared with the placebo group. The approved dose is 60 mg/daily.

In addition to its use for treatment of depression, duloxetine is approved for treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, generalized anxiety disorder, and fibromyalgia.

The most common side effects reported in the back pain and osteoarthritis trials were nausea, dry mouth, insomnia, drowsiness, constipation, fatigue, and dizziness. Other serious side effects, which occurred in less than 1% of patients, included liver damage, allergic reactions such as hives, rashes and/or swelling of the face, pneumonia, depressed mood, suicide, and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

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