A randomized trial of citalopram versus placebo in outpatients with asthma and major depressive disorder: a proof of concept study.

Background: The prevalence of asthma has increased in recent years and depression is common in this population. Minimal data are available on the treatment of depressed asthma patients.

Methods: Ninety adults with asthma and current major depressive disorder were randomized to receive citalopram or placebo for 12 weeks.

Switching outpatients with bipolar or schizoaffective disorders and substance abuse from their current antipsychotic to aripiprazole.

Objective: Substance abuse is extremely common in patients with bipolar disorders, although minimal data are available on the treatment of this important clinical population. Aripiprazole is an atypical antipsychotic that is approved for the treatment of mania and that has a novel mechanism of action, acting as a dopamine-2 receptor partial agonist, thereby increasing dopamine release in some parts of the brain and decreasing dopa-mine release in other brain regions. Dopamine release is implicated in substance use, and both dopaminergic agonists and antagonists have been examined for the treatment of substance abuse.

Effect of phenytoin on mood and declarative memory during prescription corticosteroid therapy.

Background: In humans and animals, corticosteroid excess is associated with impairment in declarative memory and changes in hippocampal structure. In animals, phenytoin pretreatment blocks the effects of stress on memory and hippocampal histology, although no studies have examined the use of phenytoin to prevent corticosteroid-associated memory changes in humans. Mood changes are also common with corticosteroids, but few treatment data are available.