Psoriasis Drug May Also Clear Up Depression and Fatigue

Enbrel (etanercept), a tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) inhibitor that relieves the clinical symptoms of psoriasis has another experimental use: it may also clear up the depression and fatigue common among those with psoriasis, researchers have reported.

In a double-blind placebo-controlled phase III trial, 55% of patients taking Enbrel had significant reductions from baseline in symptoms of depression after 12 weeks of therapy. This compared with 39% of patients taking a placebo, reported a study published online today by The Lancet.

Sequential Approach To Treatment Of Depression And Anxiety

A group of investigators of the University of Bologna have published an article on a novel approach to treatment of depression and anxiety in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Administration of treatments in a sequential order is a common practice in clinical medicine, but has received insufficient attention in psychiatry. The aim of this article was to survey the literature concerned with a sequential use of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy in affective disorders (mood and anxiety disturbances).

A review of the clinical trials where treatment components were used in a sequential order (pharmacotherapy followed by psychotherapy; psychotherapy followed by pharmacotherapy; one drug treatment following another; one psychotherapeutic technique following another) was performed using MEDLINE and a manual search of the literature and the Index Medicus. In unipolar recurrent depression, the sequential use of pharmacotherapy was found to improve relapse rate. In bipolar disorder, the use of psychotherapeutic strategies in patients who were already assuming mood stabilizers was also found to yield clinical benefits. In anxiety disorders, the sequential use of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy was not found to improve long-term outcome.

Read my article on sequential alternative treatments for anxiety and depression.

Poor Health and Poverty Linked to Depression

A major U.S. study of depression finds that poor health, poverty and being a member of a racial minority contribute to depression.

The study, based on a review of 1,500 patients, concluded that chronic depression is associated with older age, less education, lower income, no private insurance, unemployment, larger number of general medical illnesses, lower physical quality of life, concurrent generalized anxiety disorder, fewer prior episodes of major depression and history of suicide attempts. Blacks, Hispanics and people being treated in non-psychiatric settings were more likely to suffer from chronic depression.