More than a year after VNS was called “the latest moneymaking gimmick” by the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a new longitudinal study suggests benefits of up to 24 months for those with chronic, treatment resistant depression. Does it matter that one of the study’s lead authors is employed by the only company providing VNS devices?

Is the amount of time you spend online impacting negatively on your well-being? According to the first nationwide study attempting to quantify ‘internet addiction’ in the general population, between 6 percent and 14 percent of computer users say they spend too much time with online activities, to the detriment of work, relationships, and even food and sleep.

Schizophrenics struggle with such symptoms as hallucinations, delusions, social withdrawal, and other mental impairments that interfere with a normal lifestyle. Now a new federally-funded study has provided a head-to-head comparison of drugs that are most effective for treating schizophrenia. Another analysis of results for 300 patients provided more insight into the best medications for schizophrenia.

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.

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 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.