When one antidepressant doesn’t work, another may
For people suffering from depression that doesn’t respond to treatment with one type of antidepressant, switching to a different type may be the best treatment, according to a new report.
Relatively new antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft, for example, are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. In recent clinical trials, only about a third of depressed patients achieved remission with SSRI treatment, the authors explain, but there is little consensus among psychiatrists about the best treatment for patients when an SSRI doesn’t work.
To look into this, Dr. George I. Papakostas from Harvard Medical School, Boston, and his associates conducted an analysis of four clinical trials that compared a switch to a second SSRI versus a non-SSRI antidepressant for SSRI-resistant major depression.
Beijing says full smoking ban “impossible”
Banning smoking completely in Beijing is “impossible” but the city will do its best to ensure a smoke-free environment for the Olympics through new regulations to come into force on May 1, officials said on Thursday.
The new regulations ban smoking in sports venues, parks, on public transport and in schools but restaurants and hotels are exempted.
The Olympic host city had pledged to restrict smoking in most public places before the August 8-24 Games and is committed to achieve a “thorough indoor smoke-free” environment required by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by 2011.
Obesity, low birthweight mar health of U.S. kids
Rising obesity rates and a large percentage of children born with low birthweight are dragging down the overall health of American children in their first decade of life, according to a report tracking the health and well-being of young children in the United States.
While U.S. children overall have seen improvements in their well-being in recent years, American children aged 6 to 11 are four times more likely to be obese than similarly aged children in the 1960s, the report found.
The report, led by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina and the Foundation for Child Development, a private advocacy group, looked at the well-being of children in early childhood, those from birth to age five, and middle childhood, or those aged 6 to 11, from 1994 to 2006.
