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Previous meta-analysis indicates that depression prevalence in patients with heart failure is 10 percent to 40 percent, depending on disease severity. Depression has been shown to be an independent predictor of mortality and rehospitalization in patients with heart failure, with incidence rates increasing in parallel with depression severity. Long-term efficacy and safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are widely used to treat depression, is unknown for patients with heart failure and depression. For this study, 372 patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (a measure of heart function) and depression were randomly assigned to receive escitalopram or matching placebo in addition to optimal heart failure therapy. During a median participation time of 18.4 months (n = 185) for the escitalopram group and 18.7 months (n = 187) for the placebo group, the primary outcome of death or hospitalization occurred in 116 (63 percent) patients ...

Numerous studies have shown that refugee children are at high risk of a broad range of psychological problems including depression, behavioural problems, aggression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With almost 1.5 million refugee children from Syria currently living in Turkey, effective programmes to improve their mental health are sorely needed. This study assessed whether group art therapy could reduce psychological symptoms in 64 Syrian refugee children (aged 7-12) who were living in Istanbul. Arabic speaking interviewers used standard questionnaires and scales to assess the children's traumatic experiences and to measure levels of depression, PTSD, and anxiety -- both before and one week after -- the five-day art therapy programme. The therapy used the Skills for Psychological Recovery programme to help children improve their problem solving skills, express and manage their feelings, and increase their social engagement and self-esteem through, art, dan...

This research is the first to robustly assess this key theory on what is now known as Conversion Disorder (CD) or, increasingly, as Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). CD is a complex and much misunderstood disorder at the interface of neurology and psychiatry. Neurological symptoms occur in the absence of identifiable neurological disease and the disorder has historically been assumed to be psychological in origin -- although this is being increasingly challenged. It is one of the most frequent causes of neurological symptoms but receives a fraction of the research attention of other common and disabling disorders, such as Multiple Sclerosis. As a result, the causes of CD remains largely unknown and there are few effective treatments. This study of 43 CD patients with physical weakness, 28 depression patients and 28 healthy controls used the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule ( LEDS ) -- the most robust method for detecting, categorising and rating severity of stressors ...

Family stressors can take a toll on children and approximately two-thirds of youth will experience some form of childhood adversity by the age of 18. Research has primarily focused on how adversity at a young age can lead to mood disorders in adolescence, but most children exhibit resilience to adverse experiences. So senior author Dr. Marilyn Essex, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues followed 132 kids from infancy to 18 years old to search for a neurobiological mechanism of emotional adaptation. "The study shows us how experience changes the brain and how resilience reflects healthy emotion regulation," said Dr. Cameron Carter, Editor of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging . The researchers chose to focus on common types of childhood adversity, such as negative parenting, parental conflict and financial stress that occurred between infancy and 11 years of age. When the youth were 15 to 18 years old, the re...