Posted by dj on August 11, 2000, at 9:11:04
In reply to Re: Psychopharmacology, Fourth Generation of Progress, posted by Cam W. on August 8, 2000, at 21:59:32
> > http://www.acnp.org/G4/
>
> Blue - How "enlightening" of you! Thanks, these >are great sites. - CamPretty intense looking scientific bibble-babble there from a quick look, with a focus on chemical and biological jargon. If, Cam, you or anyone else versed in these pseudo-languages glean any particularly interesting new insights from a review of links perhaps you would kindly translate them into simple English and share them with those of us, less enamoured with scientificly obscure language.
The one study I did a quick review of because it was in language I could generally make sense of was the one on: Psychosocial Predictors of Outcome in Depression: http://www.acnp.org/G4/GN401000107/Default.htm
Here are the:
CONCLUSIONS
Sociodemographic and psychosocial variables clearly are related to depression and may be important in its etiology. There has been a trend in the last 50 years for the age of onset of depression to become younger. Nearly all types of depression are two times more prevalent in women than in men. Depression is more prevalent among the unmarried, and the onset of depression is more likely among the unmarried. There is some increase in prevalence of mood disorders (i.e., depression) in the lowest socioeconomic classes. However, these same variables have not been found to predict outcome generally or to influence the response to pharmacotherapy. There have been scattered findings reported in the literature, but no consistent pattern has emerged, that would suggest that these variables are helpful in predicting response to pharmacotherapy.
Although marital status per se does not predict outcome, the quality of marital, familial, and social relationships does seem to be an important predictor of outcome and response. A number of studies have found that calm, positive, steady support is associated with and predictive of a better outcome, a better response to medication, and often a speedier recovery. On the other hand, high criticism, distress, less support, and high expressed emotion is predictive of a poorer outcome in general and a poorer response to specific treatment. In addition, these same variables are predictive of relapses.
Other important predictors are personality features and disorders. High neuroticism, low autonomy, high sociotropy, are predictive of a poor response to tricyclic antidepressants. The presence of personality disorders also has an adverse affect on response to treatment. Comorbid anxiety disorders and substance abuse complicates the course of depression and reduces positive outcomes.
Depression rarely produces nonsymptomatic outcomes. Patients with depression appear to suffer from impairments in physical, social, and role functioning and a variety of other problems, including many common general medical illnesses. Successful treatment is associated with an improvement of psychosocial outcomes, but improvement in these outcomes tends to temporally lag behind symptomatic outcomes. This makes sense intuitively in that interpersonal relationships in role functioning often take time to improve.
Whether patients achieve nonclinical outcomes and what the effects of depression are on quality of life over time are very important questions, and should receive more attention in the future"
Sante!
dj
poster:dj
thread:42370
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000811/msgs/42578.html