A phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of NSI-189 phosphate, a neurogenic compound, among outpatients with major depressive disorder.

NSI-189 is a novel neurogenic compound independent of monoamine reuptake pathways. This trial evaluated oral NSI-189 as monotherapy in major depressive disorder. To improve signal detection, the sequential-parallel comparison design (SPCD) was chosen. Two hundred and twenty subjects were randomized to NSI-189 40 mg daily, 80 mg daily, or placebo for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the Montogmery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Secondary subject-rated measures included the Symptoms of Depression Questionnaire (SDQ), the Cognitive and Physical Functioning Scale (CPFQ), the patient-rated version of the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Scale (QIDS-SR), and subtests from the CogScreen and Cogstate cognitive tests. MADRS score reduction versus placebo did not reach significance for either dose (40 mg pooled mean difference -1.8, p = 0.22, 80 mg pooled mean difference -1.4, p = 0.34, respectively). However, the 40 mg dose showed greater overall reduction in SDQ (pooled mean difference -8.2; Cohen's d for Stages 1 and 2 = -0.11 and -0.64, p = 0.04), and CPFQ scores (pooled mean difference -1.9; Cohen's d for Stages 1 and 2 = -0.28 and -0.47, p = 0.03) versus placebo, as well as QIDS-SR scores in Stage 2 of SPCD (-2.5; Cohen's d Stages 1 and 2 = -0.03 and -0.68, p = 0.04). The 40 mg dose also showed advantages on some objective cognitive measures of the CogScreen (absolute Cohen's d ranged between 0.12 and 1.12 in favor of NSI-189, p values between 0.002 and 0.048 for those with overall significance), but not the Cogstate test. Both doses were well tolerated. These findings replicate those of phase 1b study, and warrant further exploration of the antidepressant and pro-cognitive effects of NSI-189.

Greater extracellular free-water in first-episode psychosis predicts better neurocognitive functioning.

Free Water Imaging is a novel diffusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging method that is able to separate changes affecting the extracellular space from those that reflect changes in neuronal cells and processes. A previous Free Water Imaging study in schizophrenia identified significantly greater extracellular water volume in the early stages of the disorder; however, its clinical and functional sequelae have not yet been investigated. Here, we applied Free Water Imaging to a larger cohort of 63 first-episode patients with psychosis and 70 healthy matched controls to better understand the functional significance of greater extracellular water. We used diffusion MR imaging data and the Tract-Based Spatial Statistics analytic pipeline to first analyze fractional anisotropy (FA), the most commonly employed metric for assessing white matter. This comparison was then followed by Free Water Imaging analysis, where two parameters, the fractional volume of extracellular free-water (FW) and cellular tissue FA (FA-t), were estimated and compared across the entire white matter skeleton between groups, and correlated with cognitive measures at baseline and following 12 weeks of antipsychotic treatment. Our results indicated lower FA across the whole brain in patients compared with healthy controls that overlap with significant increases in FW, with only limited decreases in FA-t. In addition, higher FW correlated with better neurocognitive functioning following 12 weeks of antipsychotic treatment. We believe this is the first study to suggest that an extracellular water increase during the first-episode of psychosis, which may be indicative of an acute neuroinflammatory process, and/or cerebral edema may predict better functional outcome.

A Phase 1B, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, multiple-dose escalation study of NSI-189 phosphate, a neurogenic compound, in depressed patients.

We wanted to examine tolerability and efficacy of NSI-189, a benzylpiperizine-aminiopyridine neurogenic compound for treating major depressive disorder (MDD). This was a Phase 1B, double blind, randomized, placebo controlled, multiple-dose study with three cohorts. The first cohort received 40 mg q.d. (n=6) or placebo (n=2), the second cohort 40 mg b.i.d. (n=6) or placebo (n=2), and the third cohort 40 mg t.i.d. (n=6) or placebo (n=2). Twenty-four patients with MDD were recruited, with the diagnosis and severity confirmed through remote interviews. Eligible patients received NSI-189 or placebo for 28 days in an inpatient setting with assessments for safety, pharmacokinetics (PK) and efficacy. Outpatient follow-up visits were conducted until day 84 (±3). NSI-189 was relatively well tolerated at all doses, with no serious adverse effects. NSI-189 area under the curve increased in a dose-related and nearly proportional manner across the three cohorts, with a half-life of 17.4-20.5 h. The exploratory efficacy measurements, including Symptoms Of Depression Questionnaire (SDQ), Montgomery-Asberg Depression Scale (MADRS), Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement (CGI-I), and The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cognitive and Physical Functioning Questionnaire (CPFQ) showed a promising reduction in depressive and cognitive symptoms across all measures for NSI-189, with significant improvement in the SDQ and CPFQ, and a medium to large effect size for all measures. These improvements persisted during the follow-up phase. In summary, NSI-189 shows potential as a treatment for MDD in an early phase study. The main limitation of this preliminary study was the small sample size of each cohort.

Prenatal antidepressant exposure is associated with risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder but not autism spectrum disorder in a large health system.

Previous studies suggested that risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may be increased in children exposed to antidepressants during the prenatal period. The disease specificity of this risk has not been addressed and the possibility of confounding has not been excluded. Children with ASD or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) delivered in a large New England health-care system were identified from electronic health records (EHR), and each diagnostic group was matched 1:3 with children without ASD or ADHD. All children were linked with maternal health data using birth certificates and EHRs to determine prenatal medication exposures. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine association between prenatal antidepressant exposures and ASD or ADHD risk. A total of 1377 children diagnosed with ASD and 2243 with ADHD were matched with healthy controls. In models adjusted for sociodemographic features, antidepressant exposure prior to and during pregnancy was associated with ASD risk, but risk associated with exposure during pregnancy was no longer significant after controlling for maternal major depression (odds ratio (OR) 1.10 (0.70-1.70)). Conversely, antidepressant exposure during but not prior to pregnancy was associated with ADHD risk, even after adjustment for maternal depression (OR 1.81 (1.22-2.70)). These results suggest that the risk of autism observed with prenatal antidepressant exposure is likely confounded by severity of maternal illness, but further indicate that such exposure may still be associated with ADHD risk. This risk, modest in absolute terms, may still be a result of residual confounding and must be balanced against the substantial consequences of untreated maternal depression.

Dissociable cortico-striatal connectivity abnormalities in major depression in response to monetary gains and penalties.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) are characterized by maladaptive responses to both positive and negative outcomes, which have been linked to localized abnormal activations in cortical and striatal brain regions. However, the exact neural circuitry implicated in such abnormalities remains largely unexplored. METHOD: In this study 26 unmedicated adults with MDD and 29 matched healthy controls (HCs) completed a monetary incentive delay task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses probed group differences in connectivity separately in response to positive and negative outcomes (i.e. monetary gains and penalties). RESULTS: Relative to HCs, MDD subjects displayed decreased connectivity between the caudate and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in response to monetary gains, yet increased connectivity between the caudate and a different, more rostral, dACC subregion in response to monetary penalties. Moreover, exploratory analyses of 14 MDD patients who completed a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial after the baseline fMRI scans indicated that a more normative pattern of cortico-striatal connectivity pre-treatment was associated with greater improvement in symptoms 12 weeks later. CONCLUSIONS: These results identify the caudate as a region with dissociable incentive-dependent dACC connectivity abnormalities in MDD, and provide initial evidence that cortico-striatal circuitry may play a role in MDD treatment response. Given the role of cortico-striatal circuitry in encoding action-outcome contingencies, such dysregulated connectivity may relate to the prominent disruptions in goal-directed behavior that characterize MDD.

A computational analysis of flanker interference in depression.

BACKGROUND: Depression is characterized by poor executive function, but - counterintuitively - in some studies, it has been associated with highly accurate performance on certain cognitively demanding tasks. The psychological mechanisms responsible for this paradoxical finding are unclear. To address this issue, we applied a drift diffusion model (DDM) to flanker task data from depressed and healthy adults participating in the multi-site Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response for Clinical Care for Depression (EMBARC) study. METHOD: One hundred unmedicated, depressed adults and 40 healthy controls completed a flanker task. We investigated the effect of flanker interference on accuracy and response time, and used the DDM to examine group differences in three cognitive processes: prepotent response bias (tendency to respond to the distracting flankers), response inhibition (necessary to resist prepotency), and executive control (required for execution of correct response on incongruent trials). RESULTS: Consistent with prior reports, depressed participants responded more slowly and accurately than controls on incongruent trials. The DDM indicated that although executive control was sluggish in depressed participants, this was more than offset by decreased prepotent response bias. Among the depressed participants, anhedonia was negatively correlated with a parameter indexing the speed of executive control (r = -0.28, p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Executive control was delayed in depression but this was counterbalanced by reduced prepotent response bias, demonstrating how participants with executive function deficits can nevertheless perform accurately in a cognitive control task. Drawing on data from neural network simulations, we speculate that these results may reflect tonically reduced striatal dopamine in depression.

Is S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe) for Depression Only Effective in Males? A Re-Analysis of Data from a Randomized Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine whether gender differences may have affected treatment response to S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe) in a recent failed randomized clinical trial (RCT) for adults with major depressive disorder. METHODS: Data from a 2-site, 12-week, double-blind RCT (n=189) assessing the efficacy of SAMe vs. placebo and a comparator selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (escitalopram) were subjected to post-hoc analyses to evaluate effects of patient gender on treatment response. RESULTS: When assessing the efficacy outcomes within each gender separately, SAMe was superior to placebo among males (n=51), but not among females (n=62). Males showed a significant reduction of depression severity from baseline to study endpoint on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (4.3 point difference; p=0.034; d=0.95), while females did not show significant change. This finding emerged despite equivalence on baseline measures of depression severity between the gender groups. CONCLUSION: RESULTS of this secondary data analysis suggest that gender might impact the antidepressant efficacy of SAMe, with greater therapeutic effect found in males. The underlying mechanism is still relatively unknown. Further work is needed to replicate this observation in independent samples.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00101452.

Proposed DSM-5 mixed features are associated with greater likelihood of remission in out-patients with major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Draft DSM-5 criteria for a mixed major depressive episode have been proposed, but their predictive validity has not yet been established. We hypothesized that such symptoms would be associated with poorer antidepressant treatment outcomes. METHOD: We examined outcomes among individuals with major depressive disorder participating in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study, an effectiveness study conducted at primary and specialty care centers in the USA. Mixed features were derived from the six self-report items of the mania subscale of the Psychiatric Diagnosis Screening Questionnaire. Primary analyses examined the association between the presence of at least two of these in the 6 months before study entry, and remission across up to four sequential treatment trials, as well as adverse outcomes. RESULTS: Of the 2397 subjects with a major depressive episode of at least 6 months' duration, 449 (18.7%) reported at least two mixed symptoms. The presence of such symptoms was associated with a greater likelihood of remission across up to four sequential treatments, which persisted after adjustment for potential confounding clinical and demographic variables (adjusted hazard ratio 1.16, 95% confidence interval 1.03-1.28). Two individual items, expansive mood and cheerfulness, were strongly associated with a greater likelihood of remission. CONCLUSIONS: Proposed DSM-5 mixed state features were associated with a greater rather than a lesser likelihood of remission. While unexpected, this result suggests the potential utility of further investigation of depressive mixed states in major depression.

The effects of co-morbidity in defining major depression subtypes associated with long-term course and severity.

BACKGROUND: Although variation in the long-term course of major depressive disorder (MDD) is not strongly predicted by existing symptom subtype distinctions, recent research suggests that prediction can be improved by using machine learning methods. However, it is not known whether these distinctions can be refined by added information about co-morbid conditions. The current report presents results on this question. METHOD: Data came from 8261 respondents with lifetime DSM-IV MDD in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. Outcomes included four retrospectively reported measures of persistence/severity of course (years in episode; years in chronic episodes; hospitalization for MDD; disability due to MDD). Machine learning methods (regression tree analysis; lasso, ridge and elastic net penalized regression) followed by k-means cluster analysis were used to augment previously detected subtypes with information about prior co-morbidity to predict these outcomes. RESULTS: Predicted values were strongly correlated across outcomes. Cluster analysis of predicted values found three clusters with consistently high, intermediate or low values. The high-risk cluster (32.4% of cases) accounted for 56.6-72.9% of high persistence, high chronicity, hospitalization and disability. This high-risk cluster had both higher sensitivity and likelihood ratio positive (LR+; relative proportions of cases in the high-risk cluster versus other clusters having the adverse outcomes) than in a parallel analysis that excluded measures of co-morbidity as predictors. CONCLUSIONS: Although the results using the retrospective data reported here suggest that useful MDD subtyping distinctions can be made with machine learning and clustering across multiple indicators of illness persistence/severity, replication with prospective data is needed to confirm this preliminary conclusion.

Psychosocial stressors and the prognosis of major depression: a test of Axis IV.

BACKGROUND: Axis IV is for reporting 'psychosocial and environmental problems that may affect the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of mental disorders'. No studies have examined the prognostic value of Axis IV in DSM-IV. METHOD: We analyzed data from 2497 participants in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) with major depressive episode (MDE). We hypothesized that psychosocial stressors predict a poor prognosis of MDE. Secondarily, we hypothesized that psychosocial stressors predict a poor prognosis of anxiety and substance use disorders. Stressors were defined according to DSM-IV's taxonomy, and empirically using latent class analysis (LCA). RESULTS: Primary support group problems, occupational problems and childhood adversity increased the risks of depressive episodes and suicidal ideation by 20-30%. Associations of the empirically derived classes of stressors with depression were larger in magnitude. Economic stressors conferred a 1.5-fold increase in risk for a depressive episode [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-1.9]; financial and interpersonal instability conferred a 1.3-fold increased risk of recurrent depression (95% CI 1.1-1.6). These two classes of stressors also predicted the recurrence of anxiety and substance use disorders. Stressors were not related to suicidal ideation independent from depression severity. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial and environmental problems are associated with the prognosis of MDE and other Axis I disorders. Although DSM-IV's taxonomy of stressors stands to be improved, these results provide empirical support for the prognostic value of Axis IV. Future work is needed to determine the reliability of Axis IV assessments in clinical practice, and the usefulness of this information to improving the clinical course of mental disorders.

In vivo lymph node mapping and pattern of metastasis spread in locally advanced mid/low rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

PURPOSE: The lymph node status is one of the strongest prognostic determinants in rectal cancers. After chemoradiotherapy (CRT), lymph nodes are difficult to detect. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of lymph node mapping in the mesorectum after CRT to analyze the pattern of metastasis spread and to assess the reliability of blue dye injection in sentinel lymph node detection. METHOD: Ten patients with cN+ mid/low RCs after CRT were prospectively enrolled. The protocol scheduled intraoperative blue dye injection, surgery, and specimen examination with fat clearance technique. The mesorectum was divided into three equal "levels" (upper, middle, and lower); each level was divided into three equal "sectors" (right anterolateral, posterior, and left anterolateral). Lymph nodes were defined "small" if ≤5 mm. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-six lymph nodes were retrieved in ten patients; 76.5 % were small lymph nodes. Six patients were pN+ (33 metastatic lymph nodes, 76 % small); small lymph node analysis upstaged one patient from N0 to N1 and four patients from N1 to N2. Metastasis distribution across sectors was continuous, without "skip sectors." The blue dye detected the sentinel lymph node in all patients; in half of the cases, it was out of the tumor sector. Blue dye identified 69.7 % of metastatic lymph nodes; its sensitivity decreased together with the metastatic deposit size (84 % macrometastases, 28.6 % micrometastases, 0 % occult tumor cells; p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: The fat clearance technique should be the standard pathological examination in patients with RCs after CRT; N staging was improved by small lymph node identification. Lymph node metastases have a continuous spread through mesorectal sectors. Blue dye injection is effective in sentinel lymph node detection.

Using electronic medical records to enable large-scale studies in psychiatry: treatment resistant depression as a model.

BACKGROUND: Electronic medical records (EMR) provide a unique opportunity for efficient, large-scale clinical investigation in psychiatry. However, such studies will require development of tools to define treatment outcome. METHOD: Natural language processing (NLP) was applied to classify notes from 127 504 patients with a billing diagnosis of major depressive disorder, drawn from out-patient psychiatry practices affiliated with multiple, large New England hospitals. Classifications were compared with results using billing data (ICD-9 codes) alone and to a clinical gold standard based on chart review by a panel of senior clinicians. These cross-sectional classifications were then used to define longitudinal treatment outcomes, which were compared with a clinician-rated gold standard. RESULTS: Models incorporating NLP were superior to those relying on billing data alone for classifying current mood state (area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.85-0.88 v. 0.54-0.55). When these cross-sectional visits were integrated to define longitudinal outcomes and incorporate treatment data, 15% of the cohort remitted with a single antidepressant treatment, while 13% were identified as failing to remit despite at least two antidepressant trials. Non-remitting patients were more likely to be non-Caucasian (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The application of bioinformatics tools such as NLP should enable accurate and efficient determination of longitudinal outcomes, enabling existing EMR data to be applied to clinical research, including biomarker investigations. Continued development will be required to better address moderators of outcome such as adherence and co-morbidity.

Is prior course of illness relevant to acute or longer-term outcomes in depressed out-patients? A STAR*D report.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is commonly chronic and/or recurrent. We aimed to determine whether a chronic and/or recurrent course of MDD is associated with acute and longer-term MDD treatment outcomes. METHOD: This cohort study recruited out-patients aged 18-75 years with non-psychotic MDD from 18 primary and 23 psychiatric care clinics across the USA. Participants were grouped as: chronic (index episode >2 years) and recurrent (n = 398); chronic non-recurrent (n=257); non-chronic recurrent (n=1614); and non-chronic non-recurrent (n = 387). Acute treatment was up to 14 weeks of citalopram (≤ 60 mg/day) with up to 12 months of follow-up treatment. The primary outcomes for this report were remission [16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology - Self-Rated (QIDS-SR(16)) ≤ 5] or response (≥ 50% reduction from baseline in QIDS-SR(16)) and time to first relapse [first QIDS-SR16 by Interactive Voice Response (IVR) ≥ 11]. RESULTS: Most participants (85%) had a chronic and/or recurrent course; 15% had both. Chronic index episode was associated with greater sociodemographic disadvantage. Recurrent course was associated with earlier age of onset and greater family histories of depression and substance abuse. Remission rates were lowest and slowest for those with chronic index episodes. For participants in remission entering follow-up, relapse was most likely for the chronic and recurrent group, and least likely for the non-chronic, non-recurrent group. For participants not in remission when entering follow-up, prior course was unrelated to relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent MDD is the norm for out-patients, of whom 15% also have a chronic index episode. Chronic and recurrent course of MDD may be useful in predicting acute and long-term MDD treatment outcomes.

Outcomes on the pharmacopsychometric triangle in bupropion-SR vs. buspirone augmentation of citalopram in the STAR*D trial.

OBJECTIVE: To compare within the framework of a novel pharmacopsychometric triangle, augmentation treatment with bupropion vs. buspirone in the acute therapy of major depression in the STAR*D study. The triangle provides a composite view in three domains of antidepressive activity, side effects, and quality of life. METHOD: Within the pharmacopsychometric triangle, the short six-item subscales of the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D(17)) and of the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-C(30)), referred to as HAM-D(6) and IDS-C(6), were focussed on pure antidepressive effect. Side-effects (tolerable vs. intolerable) and quality of life were measured using patient-administered questionnaires. A modified intention to treat sample was used. RESULTS: Within the pharmacopsychometric triangle, bupropion-SR (sustained release) was superior to buspirone when augmented to the current citalopram treatment. Thus, in the domain of pure antidepressive effect, bupropion-SR was superior (P = 0.05) on the HAM-D(6), IDS-C(6), and IDS-C(30), but not on the HAM-D(17). In the domain of side effects, the total scores on the Patient Rated Inventory of Side Effects (PRISE) were reduced significantly more by bupropion-SR than by buspirone (P = 0.03). In the domain of quality of life, the total scores on the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (QLES-Q) showed a trend (P = 0.10) from baseline to endpoint of a superiority for bupropion-SR compared with buspirone. CONCLUSION: In all domains of the pharmacopsychometric triangle, bupropion-SR was superior to buspirone as augmentation therapy in depressed outpatients not responding to citalopram.

St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) versus sertraline and placebo in major depressive disorder: continuation data from a 26-week RCT.

Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort: SJW) has been extensively studied as an antidepressant in short-term trials, however little research has been conducted on longer-term efficacy.Our objective was to analyze the continuation data from a 26-week randomized, double-blind, controlled study of SJW (LI-160) vs. sertraline and placebo in major depressive disorder. 124 participant "responders" continued treatment after week 8, until week 26. They continued randomly assigned SJW (900-1 500 mg), sertraline (50-100 mg) or matching placebo.At week 26, on the primary outcome, Hamilton depression rating scale (HAM-D) completer scores were: SJW (6.6±4.5), sertraline (7.1±5.4) and placebo (5.7±5.4) with a significant effect for time (p=0.036). Comparisons between all treatments were however non-significant (p=0.61). This effect was mirrored on the other outcomes: the BDI, CGI-severity, CGI-improvement, and on intention-to-treat analyses.While the continuation data revealed an equivocal outcome between treatments at week 26, both SJW and sertraline were still therapeutically effective, with a pronounced "placebo-effect" impeding a significant result at week 26.

Promoting resilience in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic with a brief online intervention.

INTRODUCTION: The psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers has been impacted by the high levels of stress many have experienced during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a brief online course focused on introducing evidence-based skills that could increase resilience and decreases emotional distress in healthcare workers during the pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Employees of a large healthcare system completed a mental health survey at baseline, and then one month and two months after some employees participated in an online resilience-enhancement course consisting of three 12-19 min videos focused on mindfulness, mentalization, and self-compassion. RESULTS: A total of 554 participants completed the baseline survey, endorsing moderate to high levels of emotional distress. Of those who completed all three assessments and participated in the course (n = 38), significant improvements in resilience and reductions in emotional distress were found one and two months later, in comparison to those who did not participate in the course (n = 110). DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that a brief, online intervention can improve the mental health of healthcare workers during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Efficacy of the sequential integration of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in major depressive disorder: a preliminary meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Prevention of relapse and recurrence represents an important task in the successful treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this meta-analysis was to examine the efficacy of the sequential integration of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in reducing the risk of relapse and recurrence in MDD. METHOD: Keyword searches were conducted in Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library from inception of each database to December 2008. Randomized controlled trials examining the efficacy of the administration of psychotherapy after successful response to acute-phase pharmacotherapy in the treatment of adults with MDD were considered for inclusion in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Eight high-quality studies with 442 patients in a sequential treatment arm and 433 in a control treatment arm were included. The pooled risk ratio (RR) for relapse/recurrence was 0.797 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.659-0.964] according to the random-effects model, suggesting a relative advantage in preventing relapse/recurrence for the sequential administration of treatments compared with control conditions. Performing subgroup analyses, we found a trend favoring psychotherapy during continuation of antidepressant drugs compared to antidepressants or treatment as usual (RR 0.842, 95% CI 0.674-1.051). Patients randomized to psychotherapy while antidepressants were discontinued were significantly less likely to experience relapse/recurrence compared to controls (RR 0.650, 95% CI 0.463-0.912). CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence that the sequential integration of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is a viable strategy for preventing relapse and recurrence in MDD. In addition, our findings suggest that discontinuation of antidepressant drugs may be feasible when psychotherapy is provided.

The importance of irritability as a symptom of major depressive disorder: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.

Irritability is a diagnostic symptom of major depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents but not in adults in both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) systems. We explore the importance of irritability for subtyping adult DSM-IV MDD in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a national US adult household survey. The WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was used to assess prevalence of many DSM-IV disorders in the lifetime and in the year before interview (12-month prevalence). MDD was assessed conventionally (that is, requiring either persistent sadness or loss of interest), but with irritability included as one of the Criterion A symptoms. We also considered the possibility that irritability might be a diagnostic symptom of adult MDD (that is, detect cases who had neither sad mood nor loss of interest). Twelve-month MDD symptom severity was assessed with the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology and role impairment with the Sheehan Disability Scale. After excluding bipolar spectrum disorders, irritability during depressive episodes was reported by roughly half of respondents with lifetime DSM-IV MDD. Irritability in the absence of either sad mood or loss of interest, in comparison, was rare. Irritability in MDD was associated with early age of onset, lifetime persistence, comorbidity with anxiety and impulse-control disorders, fatigue and self-reproach during episodes, and disability. Irritability was especially common in MDD among respondents in the age range 18-44 and students. Further investigation is warranted of distinct family aggregation, risk factors and treatment response. Consideration should also be given to including irritability as a nondiagnostic symptom of adult MDD in DSM-V and ICD-11.

Endovascular treatment of complex cerebral aneurysms with onyx hd-500® in 38 patients.

OBJECTIVE: To report our experience with Onyx HD-500(®) (Micro Therapeutics, Inc., Irvine, CA, USA) in the endovascular treatment of complex intracranial aneurysms as an alternative to treatment with platinum coils. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between October 2003 and December 2007, 38 patients (20 female and 18 male) were selected for inclusion in the study based on aneurysm size and dome-to-neck ratio. Altogether, 37 (97.3%) aneurysms were located in the anterior circulation, and one (2.7%) was in the posterior circulation. Of these, 35 (92.1%) had wide necks (>4mm and/or a dome-to-neck ratio<2). Clinical and angiographic follow-ups were performed at six and 12 months. RESULTS: Successful embolization was achieved in 36 of the 38 patients. Complete occlusion was seen in 29 patients (80.5%), and seven (19.4%) had subtotal occlusion on the immediate angiographic control. After six months, 29 patients (80.5%) initially with total occlusion were stable, while four with subtotal occlusion had progressed to total occlusion and three showed recanalization. Of the latter, two were reembolized and the third patient did not return for retreatment. The one-year angiographic follow-up showed no changes. The morbidity rate was 8.3% (3/36) and procedural mortality was 0%. CONCLUSION: The Onyx HD-500 liquid embolic system is a feasible and safe therapeutic option for patients presenting with complex aneurysms, but who are not candidates for other techniques or in whom previous treatment has failed.