Recent developments and current controversies in depression.
In this review of the last 5 years' developments in research into depression we focus on recent advances and current controversies. We cover epidemiology and basic science as well as the treatment of depression in adults in all its forms. Depression in , as well as in has been covered in recent Seminars in The Lancet. Depression in adulthood remains a very common and under-treated condition, resulting in a high degree of disability. Increasingly detailed knowledge about impairment of information processing in depression is being supplemented by quantitative studies of the brain processes underlying these impairments. Most patients improve with present treatments. The mechanisms of action of antidepressants are not fully understood; the hypothesis that reversing hippocampal cell loss in depression may be their active principle is a fascinating new development. Moral panic about the claim that antidepressant serotonin reuptake inhibitors cause patients to commit suicide and become addicted to their medication may have disconcerted the public and members of the medical profession. We will try to describe the considerable effort that has gone into collecting evidence to enlighten this debate.
Ebmeier
Klaus P
KP
Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Morningside Park, Edinburgh, UK. k.ebmeier@ed.ac.uk
Donaghey
Claire
C
Steele
J Douglas
JD
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors