Posts Tagged ‘medications’

Interesting developments in mental health news last week include the first skin patch for treating Alzheimer’s disease, an FDA public health warning about serotonin syndrome from combining certain anti-depressants with certain headache medications, and word of apparently serious conflicts of interest at two major medical journals publishing studies about vagus nerve stimulation and about the use of antidepressants during pregnancy.

As new government figures show that prescriptions for antidepressants have increased by 33 per cent in the last six years, costing the UK economy over £28 million, a mental health charity today says it has been awarded £95,000 by the Department of Health to promote exercise as an effective treatment for mild to moderate depression.

Are you still trying to quit smoking, but finding that will power just isn’t enough? Help may be at hand, because varenicline, to be marketed in tablet form as Chantix, has now been approved by the FDA, joining bupropion (marketed as Zyban) as only the second nicotine-free smoking cessation product available to US consumers. Unlike nicotine replacement therapies, drugs like varenicline work both by cutting the pleasure of smoking and by reducing the withdrawal symptoms that lead smokers to keep lighting up.

The Mental Health Foundation has today released Cheers? — a new research report outlining the relationship between alcohol and mental health. The report reveals that many adults in the UK use alcohol to deal with feelings of stress, anxiety and depression, and highlights evidence that excessive drinking increases vulnerability to a range of mental health problems.

A recently published Danish study of treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy offers more specific antiobsessional effects than a standard medication, although CBT together with the medication provided the greatest overall improvement in mood. CBT remains the most studied of all psychotherapy approaches, with a growing body of research supporting its effectiveness.