A recent paper published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics by Dr. Fava points to the important role that benzodiazepines may have in managing anxious and mild depression and present many advantages over antidepressants.
Read More »In a widely read article on antidepressant withdrawal, which refers to Dr. Fava’s work, The New York Times invited readers to describe their experiences coming off the drugs. More than 8,800 people responded — teenagers, college students, new mothers, empty-nesters, retirees. Read the article here.
Read More »Clinical pharmacopsychology consists of the application of clinical psychology to the full understanding of
pharmacological effects. Clinical pharmacopsychology encompasses clinical benefits of psychotropic drugs as well as vulnerabilities induced by treatment (side effects, behavioral toxicity, iatrogenic comorbidity) and the interactions between drug treatment and psychological variables such as quality of life and psychological well-being. To know more about clinical pharmacopsychology read the full article on Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic.
Psychosomatic research has advanced over the past decades in dealing with complex biopsychosocial phenomena
and may provide new effective modalities of patient care. Among psychosocial variables affecting individual vulnerability, course, and outcome of any medical disease, the role of chronic stress (allostatic overload) and well-being have emerged as a crucial factors.
In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Gregor Hasler (University of Bern) analyzes the neuroscientific implications of the pursuit of well-being. Promising findings show strong and lasting effects of currently available well-being therapy in severe psychiatric conditions such as major depressive disorder. This work encourages physicians to implement positive health promotion right now into clinical work. The Author is confident that current clinical insights and experiences along with a neurobiological understanding of positive health will provide us with novel and more effective well-being therapy options.
Read More »Newer generation antidepressant drugs are widely used as the first line of treatment for major depressive disorders and are considered to be safer than tricyclic agents. In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics an international group of investigators outlines the side effects that long-term treatment with antidepressant drugs may induce. Their analysis showed that several side effects are transient and may disappear after a few weeks following treatment initiation, but potentially serious adverse events may persist or ensue later. The senior Author of the paper, Giovanni A. Fava, M.D., commented: “It is very unlikely that most of the prescribers of antidepressant drugs are aware of these side effects, because of a tight censorship that has been in action all these years.”
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