Content about Major depressive disorder

OSAKA, Japan — Drug makers Takeda Pharmaceutical and H. Lundbeck have applied with the Food and Drug Administration for a new drug to treat depression in adults.

Japan-based Takeda and Denmark-based Lundbeck announced the submission of a new drug application for Lu AA21004 (vortioxetine) for major depressive disorder.

CHEVY CHASE, Md. — A case report series presented at the Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston examined how women with moderate to severe depression could see an improvement in symptoms if they are treated for their vitamin D deficiency.

NEW YORK — A drug under development by Forest Labs and Pierre Fabre "significantly" reduced symptoms of major depressive disorder, the companies said Wednesday.

New York-based Forest and Paris-based Pierre Fabre announced results of a phase-3 trial of levomilnacipran, saying the drug showed reductions in symptoms as early as one week after treatment was started. The companies expect results of another phase-3 trial of the drug this spring.

DALLAS — Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to depression, according to UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists working with the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study in a release issued Thursday.

This new study — published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings — helps clarify a debate that erupted after smaller studies produced conflicting results about the relationship between vitamin D and depression. Major depressive disorder affects nearly 1-in-10 adults in the United States.

NEW YORK — AstraZeneca and Targacept released results of the first of four phase-3 clinical trials that investigated the efficacy and tolerability of a drug that could serve as an adjunct therapy to major depressive disorder patients that had an inadequate response to initial antidepressant therapies.

ATLANTA — More than 1-in-10 Americans ages 12 years and older take antidepressants, and the rate of antidepressant use in the United States among all ages increased 400% between 1988 and 2008, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

NEW YORK — Patients taking an investigative antidepressant undergoing late-stage clinical development showed “significant” improvement, according to study results released Monday.

Forest Labs and Pierre Fabre Medicament announced results of a phase-3 trial of levomilnacipran in adults with major depressive disorder. Results showed a statistically significant improvement in patients treated with the drug, compared with those taking placebo.

NEW YORK — Such mood disorders as anxiety and depression may be a precursor to diabetes in Latinos, according to a study by University of California at San Diego researchers scheduled for presentation at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in Honolulu.

As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the researchers found that while Latinos have higher-than-average rates of diabetes, they also seem to have higher-than-average risk of having both diabetes and a mood disorder.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Spouses of older patients with diabetes tend to experience distress if the diabetic patient has symptoms of depression, according to a new study.

BALTIMORE — If the government paid for drug cost incentives for Medicare patients with congestive heart failure, the program could recoup those costs and more by spending less on expensive hospitalizations for patients. 


That finding was one of several to emerge from research conducted by pharmacy students at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. The four students presented their findings on elderly drug adherence at the annual meeting of the Gerontology Society of America in New Orleans.

NEW YORK — A new study published in the Nov. 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine suggested there is a two-way relationship between depression and diabetes.

BOSTON A new study conducted by investigators at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital suggested that the dietary supplement S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) can be an effective, relatively well-tolerated, adjunctive treatment for adults with major depressive disorders who do not respond to their treatment with antidepressant medication, Pharmavite announced Tuesday.