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Sexual Side Effects of the Newer Antidepressants

It’s no secret that SSRIs and SNRIs cause sexual dysfunction (SD) in a large proportion of patients who take them. The exact size of that proportion, though, is difficult to pinpoint with any reliability. Most of the large clinical trials of antidepressants ascertain side effects through spontaneous reports, and research subjects are understandably embarrassed about coming out and complaining about sexual problems. Read More

Discussing Side Effects With Patients

As clinicians, we need to fully understand the importance of side effects for our patients. The most important problem in psychopharmacology is that patients stop taking their medication sooner or later. And what is the most frequent single reason for their stopping the medication? Side effects. In this interview, Dr. Rajnish Mago discusses important strategies for discussing side effects with patients. Read More

Efficacy of Quetiapine in PTSD

Some smaller studies have shown that risperidone is useful as an adjunctive treatment for PTSD. But, in a larger-scale study with nearly 300 veterans, the medication used as an adjunct did not outperform placebo. To further explore the utility of atypical antipsychotics, researchers randomly assigned 80 VA patients with PTSD to monotherapy with placebo or quetiapine. Read More

Whole-Body Hyperthermia for Depression: Effective or Too Early to Tell?

Saunas and hot tubs are pleasant and “therapeutic” for most of us, so it may be no surprise that scientists are trying to turn such experiences into psychiatric treatments. Whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) is a treatment that has long been used as an effective adjunct for treatment of certain kinds of cancers, and recently researchers have been testing it for depression. Read More