Concerns about the possible risk of suicide in young people taking antidepressants are often voiced by experts and parents. But how much of a role does dosage play in the risk of suicide and self-harm among young people on antidepressants?

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A major obstacle in the prevention of depression is the lack of a predictive biomarker in individuals who later develop the disorder. British researchers have shown that the combination of a physiological biomarker—salivary cortisol—and the presence of depressive symptoms might be used to predict the development of major depression in adolescents.

Depression is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but, surprisingly, it’s not known whether effectively treating depression can reduce the risk of a future cardiovascular event in depressed patients without preexisting CVD.

We have all bumped up against the limits of the current model of antidepressant treatments for depression: the patient who comes in with a laundry list of failed medication trials, or a number of other complaints depicting a portrait of malaise—aches, pains, anhedonia, fatigue, brain fog, digestive woes—that don’t really respond to currently available agents. What if shifting our thinking about underlying causes might hold the answer to treatment of these individuals?

After a dry spell of new antidepressants—the last one to be approved was levomilnacipran (Fetzima), the active enantiomer of milnacipran (Savella) in July 2013—the FDA approved vortioxetine (Brintellix) in September. Vortioxetine is another serotonergic antidepressant. How exactly does it work, and what are its advantages over existing drugs?

Can a single infusion of ketamine treat depression? Dr Sanjay Mathew explores the buzz around this treatment.

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