Depression is a common, recurrent, disabling and potentially life-threatening disorder that accounts for much misery worldwide. Current treatments are imperfect: most studies suggest that chemical antidepressant…
Have you ever had the flu, and along with the physical symptoms a temporary feeling of being low and fed up? Though most of us would shrug these feelings off as a result of not being able to go out with…
Depression and anxiety disorders affect a great many people and though we have antidepressants to treat symptoms, we actually know little about how the chemistry behind them works. For example, we have…
Medicine residues that we flush down the toilet can affect fish and other wildlife.
Chris Ison/PA
It’s not a thought that occurs to most of us, but flushing the toilet doesn’t just mean disposing of our bodily waste. We’re also flushing away some of the medicine we take down with it. Our contraceptive…
Antidepressant prescribing has been increasing in most developed countries since the the late 1980s and early 1990s.
PrettyPills/Flickr
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has just published two opposing views on the vexed question of whether antidepressants are being over-prescribed. The issues raised by debate are by no means unique to…
Drugs treat symptoms but do nothing to help people navigate depression.
Shutterstock
Spot the problem in this scenario. Richard* is stressed. While he’s a high-flyer (a Rhodes Scholar no less), he’s under the pump at work and has just moved his family across nations. The job is taking…
Trials show ketamine acts more quickly than other antidepressants because it affects different parts of the brain.
JLM Photography
The drug ketamine has been used for medical purposes since it was developed in the 1960s, but it is perhaps more widely known for its illicit use as a hallucinogenic tranquiliser. Now we’re beginning to…
MATTERS OF THE MIND – a series which examines the clinician’s bible for diagnosing mental disorders, the DSM, and the controversy surrounding the forthcoming fifth edition. In Australia, antidepressant…
People with major depression and anxiety are 75% more likely to have a heart rate condition linked to cardiovascular disease - regardless of whether they are taking antidepressants, new research shows…
Antidepressants double the chance of a young person making a suicide attempt.
Flickr/kamera kz
In early 2009, two 16-year-old Queensland girls tragically hanged themselves within weeks of each other. The girls’ lives were plagued with abuse, self-harm and illicit drug use, and their deaths raised…
Antidepressants lift the mood but we don’t know exactly how they work.
obumu.com
Voltaire was right when he said “doctors prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less”. Almost 300 years later, this still rings true for depression. Antidepressants…
Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland