Topics: Antidepressants

A heated debate over how well psychiatric medications actually work has led some authorities in our field to suggest that psychiatry is currently experiencing a “crisis of confidence.”

Topics: Antidepressants

In 2011 in the pages of TCPR, we asked, “What’s new in antidepressant treatment?” The answer was “not much” (TCPR, April 2011). In 2012, unfortunately, the answer isn’t very different.

I don’t think that there is any effective, proven way to predict medication response. I have been involved in research on biomarkers—we call them “response endophenotypes”—such as EEG, where we look at the physiologic response of the brain to a new drug and try to determine whether the drug will work for that patient.

Topics: Antidepressants

Psychiatrists have long wondered whether someday we might have an objective way to diagnose depression, in much the same way an internist orders a blood test or X-ray. A recent article suggests that just such a test might be on the horizon. Is it the real deal?