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Source:Â USA Today
 A new government survey shows that teenage girls are more than twice as likely as teenage boys to have experienced major depression in the previous year. Just last week, a White House report linked teen depression to marijuana use. Other research has suggested that depression in early adolescence might adversely affect growth and development, school performance and relationships with family and friends, according to the new report.
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The post-university years can start out tough. The good news: it gets better. A new University of Alberta study of almost 600 of its graduates (ages 20-29 years old) tracked mental health symptoms in participants for seven years post-graduation and looked at how key events like leaving home and becoming a parent were related to depression and anger. Graduates showed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms over the seven years.
Dr. Richard Weisler, adjunct professor of psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, is the lead investigator in a phase-3 clinical study which found that the drug quetiapine fumarate, currently used forschizophrenia and bipolar disorder, may also help people with a form of clinical depression known as major depressive disorder (MDD).
The six-week, randomized, multicenter, double-blind study of 723 patients found significantly reduced depression scores by day 4 of treatment in all quetiapine XR (extended release) dosage groups versus
placebo.
Weisler notes that with existing antidepressants, it usually takes two to three weeks or longer for patients with MDD to begin showing responseto treatment. [continue reading…]
