Interpersonal sensitivity and response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in patients with acute major depressive disorder.

Background: Patients with major depression often suffer from excessive interpersonal sensitivity, although it is not typically measured in antidepressant clinical trials. Preliminary evidence suggests selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have the capacity to reduce interpersonal sensitivity.

Methods: This was a pooled analysis of data from 1709 patients in three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of fluoxetine and paroxetine for acute major depressive disorder.

Intranasal racemic ketamine for patients hospitalized with treatment-resistant depression: A retrospective analysis.

Most research describing ketamine as a treatment for depression has relied on intravenous dosing. There remains a need for more research to support this treatment with other routes of administration. This was a retrospective chart review of 30 patients hospitalized with unipolar or bipolar treatment-resistant depression who were treated with up to four doses of compounded intranasal racemic ketamine (50 mg or 75 mg).

Emotional blunting with bupropion and serotonin reuptake inhibitors in three randomized controlled trials for acute major depressive disorder.

Background: Emotional blunting is theorized to be an adverse effect of antidepressants, particularly serotonin reuptake inhibitors, but this has not been firmly established. Another possibility is that emotional blunting represents a residual depressive symptom.

Methods: We analyzed data from adult outpatients with acute major depressive disorder who participated in three 8-week randomized controlled trials.

Understanding the inverse relationship between age and psychotic symptoms: The role of borderline personality traits.

Objective: There is a well-established inverse relationship between age and positive psychotic symptoms, both in patients with psychotic disorders and in general population samples with psychotic experiences. The reason for this inverse relationship is unclear. We hypothesized that life-course developmental changes in borderline personality traits, which also typically decline with age, might explain the inverse relationship between age and positive psychotic symptoms.

Sexual assault and psychosis in two large general population samples: Is childhood and adolescence a developmental window of sensitivity?

Background: Research has shown a strong relationship between psychosis and sexual assault. Theories on developmental trauma as a causal factor for psychosis suggest that exposure to sexual trauma in childhood would have a stronger association with psychosis than sexual trauma in adulthood. We hypothesized that exposure to sexual trauma earlier in childhood and adolescence would be more strongly associated with hallucinations, delusional beliefs and psychotic disorder than sexual trauma that occurred later in life.

Lamotrigine for acute bipolar depression: An exploratory item-level analysis.

Objectives: Lamotrigine is used to treat bipolar depression despite inconsistent evidence. Here we present the results of an exploratory item-level analysis of pooled data from five randomized placebo-controlled trials of lamotrigine for acute bipolar depression. The goal was to determine if certain depression scale items were more responsive to lamotrigine treatment.

Melancholic Features in Bipolar Depression and Response to Lamotrigine: A Pooled Analysis of Five Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials.

Background: A pilot study suggested lamotrigine may be more effective for bipolar depression with melancholic features. We tested this hypothesis in a pooled analysis of 5 randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials of lamotrigine for acute bipolar depression.

Methods: The pooled sample consisted of 1072 adult outpatients.

Melancholic depression and response to quetiapine: A pooled analysis of four randomized placebo-controlled trials.

Background: Melancholic depression may preferentially respond to certain treatments. This study examined the efficacy of extended-release quetiapine monotherapy in patients with melancholic and nonmelancholic major depressive disorder.

Methods: Data from four randomized placebo-controlled trials was pooled.

A randomized placebo-controlled trial examining the effects of escitalopram on neuroticism and state anxiety in a nonclinical sample.

Objective: This study reanalyzed data from a randomized placebo-controlled trial that failed to find an effect of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor escitalopram on neuroticism and state anxiety in a nonclinical sample. The purpose was to test for unique effects on two neuroticism factors, trait anxiety and mood instability, and to explore whether neuroticism moderated the effect of escitalopram on state anxiety.

Methods: The sample included 80 adults who had a first-degree relative with major depression but without any psychiatric disorders themselves.

Mood Instability and Trait Anxiety as Distinct Components of Eysenckian Neuroticism With Differential Relations to Impulsivity and Risk Taking.

This article presents the results of 2 studies that investigated mood instability in the Eysenck neuroticism scales and its relationship to trait impulsivity and risk taking. In Study 1 we examined the relationship between a mood instability factor in the Eysenck Personality Inventory and impulsivity (i.e.

Melancholic Symptoms in Bipolar II Depression and Responsiveness to Lamotrigine in an Exploratory Pilot Study.

Background: In this exploratory pilot study we reanalyzed data from a previous randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of lamotrigine for bipolar II depression in which lamotrigine was not superior to placebo to determine if splitting the sample into melancholic and nonmelancholic subgroups revealed a significant treatment effect.

Methods: Adult outpatients (n = 150) in an acute bipolar II depressive episode completed 8 weeks of treatment with lamotrigine (titrated to 200 mg/d) or placebo. Depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and weekly with the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).

Mood Instability Is a Precursor of Relationship and Marital Difficulties: Results from Prospective Data from the British Health and Lifestyle Surveys.

The DSM system implies that affective instability is caused by reactivity to interpersonal events. We used the British Health and Lifestyle Survey that surveyed community residents in 1984 and again in 1991 to study competing hypotheses: that mood instability (MI) leads to interpersonal difficulties or . We analyzed data from 5,352 persons who participated in both waves of the survey.

The Efficacy of Psychostimulants in Major Depressive Episodes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Psychostimulants are frequently prescribed off-label for adults with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. The frequent and increasing usage of stimulants in mood disorders warrants a careful appraisal of the efficacy of this class of agents. Herein, we aim to estimate the efficacy of psychostimulants in adults with unipolar or bipolar depression.

Mood instability underlies the relationship between impulsivity and internalizing psychopathology.

Impulsivity, the tendency to act without adequate forethought, has been associated with various internalizing disorders. Mood instability, the tendency to experience rapid and intense mood swings, relates to both internalizing disorders and impulsivity. We hypothesized that the association between mood instability and impulsivity accounts for the relationship between impulsivity and internalizing psychopathology.