Antidepressants: what is the Smallest Worthwhile Difference?

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Linda Gask summarises findings from a cross-sectional online survey that investigated the Smallest Worthwhile Difference necessary for individuals with depression to consider taking antidepressants.

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Can proteomics improve our prediction of depression remission?

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Jonas Hagenberg discusses new insights into the possible use of proteomics (the large-scale study of proteins) for improving our prediction of depression remission.

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Do different groups of people with schizophrenia respond differently to different antipsychotics?

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Murtada Alsaif considers a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet Psychiatry exploring the response of different subgroups of patients with schizophrenia to different antipsychotic drugs.

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Can brain scans tell us how successful CBT for anxiety will be? Meta-analysis of task-based fMRI studies shows promise

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Millie Lowther, Isabel Luetkenherm, Carlos Mena and Alexandra Pike summarise a recent fMRI meta-analysis, which finds that activation in brain circuits related to salience, interoception and emotional processing were found to predict a positive response to CBT in anxiety disorders.

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Youth anxiety and depression treatment not as good as we think? What should we tell the children?

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Ola Demkowicz writes her debut elf blog about a study that evaluates reliable improvement rates in depression and anxiety at the end of treatment in adolescents.

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Improving antidepressant outcomes: what works for whom and why?

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Thalia Eley and Gerome Breen explore a new systematic meta-review of predictors of antidepressant treatment outcome in depression, which looks at clinical and demographic variables, but also biomarkers including both genetic and neuroimaging data.

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Understanding the genetics of antipsychotic treatment response

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Marcus Munafo looks at a Chinese genome-wide association study that claims to have identified some of the genes associated with response to antipsychotic treatment.

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Can early improvement be used to predict later response to antipsychotics in schizophrenia?

The increased risk of mood and anxiety problems found in people taking varenicline with pre-existing mental health conditions, needs to be investigated further.

Tracey Roberts summarises a recent diagnostic test review, which suggests that early improvement can act as a predictor of later response to antipsychotics in schizophrenia.

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Biological markers for treatment response in first episode psychosis

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Stephen Wood summarises a systematic review of biological markers for treatment response in first episode psychosis, which discusses a number of hot topics in this field including inflammation, infectious disease and oxidative stress.

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