Blended fish oil supplements taken for just three months brought dramatic improvements in symptoms of ADHD, severe impulsivity, and severe inattention, according to a study of 12-15 year olds with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The BBC’s Radio 4 Saturday morning reported on NHS plans for a pilot project in Staffordshire which would allow patients engaging in self-harm to continue to do so under medical supervision. With the radio interviewers seemingly intent on ferreting out whatever controversy they could discover, it seemed to me that important points were missed about the role of self-harming as a coping mechanism.

In the largest ‘real world’ trial ever conducted, a $35 million US government study has concluded that antidepressants cure (or fail to cure) the symptoms of major depression in half of all sufferers, even when individuals are receiving the best possible care. The drugs used in the study, including Celexa, Wellbutrin, Zoloft and Effexor, work in very different ways yet had roughly equal effectiveness when it came to treating depression.

Timothy Wilens, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says most doctors who prescribe ADHD drugs are already aware that they can trigger psychosis, a rare side effect. Now an advisory panel will discuss whether the Food and Drug Administration should ask makers of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs to add labelling information about the possible risk of psychosis or mania, especially in children.

Following elderly individuals with depression for periods of up to two years, a University of Pittsburgh trial found that individuals were less likely to have recurrent depression if they received two years of maintenance therapy with the anti-depressant paroxetine. So-called ‘maintenance psychotherapy’ offered once a month for 45 minutes did not prevent recurrent depression.

One in three teens will experience an abusive relationship, but many cases go unreported. And abusive relationships may not always be recognized by teens for what they are, some experts say.

Following successful clinical trials at the University of Bonn on transcranial magnetic stimulation as a treatment for depression, Yale University researchers are now recruiting schizophrenic patients nationally for a clinical trial involving the use of TMS as a treatment for auditory hallucinations.