Paroxetine drops versus paroxetine tablets: evaluation of compliance in a six-month study.

Aims: Literature data show that one third of patients discontinue antidepressant therapy within the first month of treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether paroxetine liquid solution 10 mg/ml may influence adherence inpatients receiving long-term treatment.

Methods: 71 subjects affected by mood disorders or panic disorder were monitored for six months.

Optimized light therapy for non-seasonal major depressive disorder: effects of timing and season.

Background: Light Therapy (LT) when combined with standard antidepressant treatment for unipolar depression hastens recovery. We studied the influence of LT timing on the antidepressant efficacy of LT and the influence of the season of treatment and recurrence on the response to treatment.

Methods: We studied 70 inpatients affected by Unipolar Depression, treated for three weeks with combined LT and venlafaxine.

Seasonality and sleep: a clinical study on euthymic mood disorder patients.

Background. Research on mood disorders has progressively focused on the study of seasons and on the mood in association with them during depressive or manic episodes yet few studies have focused on the seasonal fluctuation that characterizes the patient's clinical course both during an illness episode and during euthymic periods. Methods.

Acute antidepressant response to sleep deprivation combined with light therapy is influenced by the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val(108/158)Met polymorphism.

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inactivates norepinephrine and dopamine via methyl conjugation, and a G-A transition in the COMT gene (rs4680) influences the enzyme activity. It is a current area of debate whether rs4680 can influence antidepressant response in major depressive disorder, and whether this influence extends to bipolar depression. Chronotherapeutic interventions, such as sleep deprivation and light therapy, are multi-target in nature and are effective in bipolar depression.

Phase advance is an actimetric correlate of antidepressant response to sleep deprivation and light therapy in bipolar depression.

The combination of total sleep deprivation (TSD) and light therapy (LT) in bipolar depression causes rapid antidepressant effects, and its mechanism of action has been hypothesized to involve the enhancement of all of the monoaminergic systems targeted by antidepressant drugs (serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine). It is still unknown if the clinical effects are paralleled by changes in biological rhythms. In a before/after design of a study of biological correlates of response, 39 inpatients affected by Type I Bipolar Disorder whose current depressive episode was without psychotic features were treated for one week with repeated TSD combined with morning LT.

Actimetric evidence that CLOCK 3111 T/C SNP influences sleep and activity patterns in patients affected by bipolar depression.

Depressive insomnia and diurnal fluctuations of mood and activity are core clinical features of mood disorders. Here we studied the effect of CLOCK 3111 T/C SNP (rs1801260) on the actimetric recorded diurnal activity and nocturnal sleep of 39 bipolar depressed inpatients. Compared to T/T homozygotes, carriers of the C allele had a similar degree of severity of depression, but showed higher activity levels in the evening, a delayed sleep onset (mean 79 min later), and a reduced amount of sleep during the night (mean 75 min less).

Combined total sleep deprivation and light therapy in the treatment of drug-resistant bipolar depression: acute response and long-term remission rates.

Background: Drug resistance remains a persistent source of morbidity and mortality for patients with bipolar depression. A growing number of clinical studies support the usefulness of chronotherapeutic interventions, such as total sleep deprivation (TSD) and light therapy (LT), in the treatment of nonresistant bipolar depression.

Method: To investigate the clinical usefulness of TSD plus LT in the treatment of drug-resistant bipolar depression, we treated 60 inpatients for 1 week with repeated TSD and LT combined with ongoing antidepressants and lithium salts.

Dark therapy for mania: a pilot study.

Background: Recent findings suggest that extended bed rest and darkness could stabilize mood swings in rapid cycling bipolar patients.

Method: We exposed 16 bipolar inpatients affected by a manic episode to a regimen of 14 h of enforced darkness from 6 p.m.