The Mental Health Foundation has welcomed the UK Department of Health’s announcement that it will make computer-based cognitive behavioural therapy available to patients with common mental health problems such as anxiety or mild to moderate depression.

Echoing the experience of researchers involved in other types of distance therapies, such as online therapy, a new study indicates that people receiving brief telephone-based psychotherapy soon after starting on antidepressant medication experienced strongly positive effects up to 18 months after their first session.

Not enough is known about the potential dangers associated with antidepressant medications, according to the UK’s Mental Health Foundation. The group has responded to the controversy about the GlaxoSmithKline Seroxat case covered in an expose by the Panorama programme.

Many people seem willing to do almost anything to cope with sleep-deprivation and emotional stress, but when push comes to shove, they are turning to quick fixes in lieu of obvious solutions. Are you among the many who are ignoring fundamental steps to improve quality sleep and mood? It is well-known that sleep problems can be a key sign of depression. What people may not realize is that the reverse is also true: sleep disorders can actually trigger mood disorders and depression.

While unemployment rates are monitored regularly and play a crucial role in shaping government monetary policy, the hidden economic impact of depression and anxiety may be just as significant: it turns out that more people receive government benefits as a result of severe depression and anxiety than receive benefits for being unemployed. Experts are urging the government to fund 200 new treatment centres to offer psychological therapy to those affected.

Individuals with bipolar I or II major depression are often misdiagnosed as having unipolar major depression. But a new screening method, testing just three factors, promises to help distinguish between those suffering from bipolar disorder and unipolar major depression.

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.