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Asp M, Ambrus L, Reis M, Manninen S, Fernström J, Lindqvist D, Westrin Å. Differences in antipsychotic treatment between depressive patients with and without a suicide attempt. Compr Psychiatry 2021; 109:152264. [PMID: 34271258 DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2021.152264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2021] [Revised: 05/26/2021] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Depressed suicide attempters are, according to some earlier studies, treated more often with antipsychotics than depressive non-suicide attempters. Cluster B personality disorders, especially borderline personality disorder, are associated with a high suicide risk, and antipsychotics are commonly used for the reduction of symptoms. However, no previous study has taken comorbid personality disorders into account when assessing the use of antipsychotics in patients with unipolar depression. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the clinical selection of pharmacotherapy in unipolar depression with and without a previous suicide attempt, taking into account potential confounders such as cluster B personality disorders. METHODS The study sample consisted of 247 patients with unipolar depression. The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Lund, Sweden. Study participants were recruited from 4 different secondary psychiatric care clinics in Sweden and were diagnosed according to the DSM-IV-TR with the MINI and SCID II. Previous and ongoing psychiatric treatments were investigated in detail and medical records were assessed. RESULTS Thirty percent of the patients had made previous suicide attempts. Depressed suicide attempters underwent both lifetime treatment with antipsychotics and an ongoing antipsychotic treatment significantly more often than non-attempters. Significances remained after a regression analysis, adjusting for cluster B personality disorders, symptom severity, age at the onset of depression, and lifetime psychotic symptoms. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to consider the effect of comorbidity with cluster B personality disorders when comparing treatment of depressive suicide and non-suicide attempters. Our findings suggest that suicide attempters are more frequently treated with antipsychotics compared to non-suicide attempters, regardless of cluster B personality disorder comorbidity. These findings are important for clinicians to consider and would also be relevant to future studies evaluating reduction of suicide risk with antipsychotics in patients with psychiatric comorbidity and a history of attempted suicide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Asp
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Lund University, Sweden; Office of Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatric Clinic Lund, Region Skåne, Sweden.
| | - Livia Ambrus
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Lund University, Sweden; Office of Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatric Clinic Lund, Region Skåne, Sweden
| | - Margareta Reis
- Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Sofie Manninen
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Lund University, Sweden
| | - Johan Fernström
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Lund University, Sweden; Office of Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatric Clinic Lund, Region Skåne, Sweden
| | - Daniel Lindqvist
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Lund University, Sweden; Office for Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatry Research Skåne, Region Skåne, Sweden
| | - Åsa Westrin
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Lund University, Sweden; Office for Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatry Research Skåne, Region Skåne, Sweden
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Diagnosing and treating major depressive episodes that lie along the mood disorders spectrum: focus on depression with mixed features. CNS Spectr 2021. [PMID: 33715657 DOI: 10.1017/s1092852921000262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Growing evidence indicates that historical descriptions of mixed depression-broadly defined as major depressive episodes with subthreshold manic or hypomanic (hypo/manic) symptoms-are incredibly clinically relevant in this day-and-age. However, the first operational definition of mixed depression did not occur in the modern nomenclature until 2013 with publication of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5), and there has not been enough time to evaluate these criteria empirically. Thus, the most valid operational definition of a mixed depressive episode is still unknown, widely accepted treatment guidelines are not available, and no treatment has regulatory approval for mixed depression-whether associated with bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, or major depressive disorder. This is despite seven drugs having regulatory indications for mixed episodes, defined as the co-occurrence of syndromal depression and syndromal mania, and now recognized as mania with mixed features by DSM-5. Indeed, we found only two randomized, placebo-controlled trials in patients with protocol defined mixed depression, one with ziprasidone and one with lurasidone. Both studies were positive, suggesting treatment with second-generation antipsychotics may be helpful for mixed depressive episodes associated with bipolar II or unipolar disorder. We found no randomized control trial of antidepressant monotherapy in mixed depression and many clinical reports that such treatment may worsen mixed depression Randomized, placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers-alone and in combination-in individuals with carefully defined mixed depression are needed before firm treatment guidelines can be produced.
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Malhi GS, Bell E. Managing mixed mood states by maintaining a maintenance mindset? Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2021; 55:329-331. [PMID: 33709815 DOI: 10.1177/0004867421999432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gin S Malhi
- Academic Department of Psychiatry, Kolling Institute, Northern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,CADE Clinic, Department of Psychiatry, Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney Local Health District, St Leonards, NSW, Australia
| | - Erica Bell
- Academic Department of Psychiatry, Kolling Institute, Northern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,CADE Clinic, Department of Psychiatry, Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney Local Health District, St Leonards, NSW, Australia
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El-Mallakh RS, Ali Z. Extra-synaptic modulation of GABA A and efficacy in bipolar disorder. Med Hypotheses 2021; 147:110501. [PMID: 33515862 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2021.110501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2020] [Revised: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Bipolar disorder type I is a severe psychiatric condition that leads to significant morbidity and mortality and whose treatment remains suboptimal. Its pathophysiology involves disturbance in the control of ionic fluxes so that when patients are either manic or depressed, the resting membrane potential of neurons is more depolarized than normal. Available mood stabilizers have a shared mechanism of normalizing ion flux by compensating for ionic abnormalities, and normalizing membrane potential. HYPOTHESIS Agents that significantly potentiate extrasynaptic GABAA receptors are expected to be particularly effective in hyperpolarizing resting membrane potential in bipolar patients, thereby normalizing their membrane potential. DISCUSSION New neuroactive steroid-like agents are being tested in humans for depression and insomnia. These agents include brexanolone, ganaxolone, and gaboxadol. Brexanolone has been approved for the treatment of postpartum depression, ganaxolone is being studied for treatment-resistant depression, and gaboxadol development for the treatment of insomnia has been abandoned due to narrow therapeutic index. In addition to the current studies, these agents are expected to have particular efficacy in acute and prophylactic management of bipolar I disorder by hyperpolarizing the resting potential of neurons and antagonizing one of the most reproducible demonstrated biologic abnormalities of this illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rif S El-Mallakh
- Mood Disorders Research Program, Depression Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences University of Louisville School of Medicine, 401 East Chestnut Street, Suite 610 Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USA.
| | - Ziad Ali
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, The Medical Center of Bowling Green, Bowling Green, KY, USA
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Sani G, Tondo L, Undurraga J, Vázquez GH, Salvatore P, Baldessarini RJ. Melancholia: does this ancient concept have contemporary utility? Int Rev Psychiatry 2020; 32:466-470. [PMID: 32172612 DOI: 10.1080/09540261.2019.1708708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Many efforts have been made to develop coherent and clinically useful categories of depressive illness, especially to facilitate prediction of morbidity and guide treatment-response. They include proposals to resurrect the ancient concept of melancholia, as a form of severe depression with particular symptomatic and proposed psychobiological characteristics. However, modern research is inconsistent in supporting differences between melancholic and nonmelancholic depression. In our recent study of over 3200 patient-subjects with DSM-5 major depressive episodes with/without melancholic characteristics, and matched for illness severity, prevalence of melancholic features was 35.2% with remarkably few clinical and demographic differences between melancholic and nonmelancholic subjects. Also, our systematic review of trials comparing melancholic and nonmelancholic subjects found little difference in responses to antidepressant treatments. These findings indicate that the concept of melancholia may have limited value for clinical prediction and treatment-selection. Overlap of symptoms in melancholic and nonmelancholic depression, based on DSM criteria, may limit distinction of melancholia; alternative definitions can be sought, and psychomotor retardation is a particularly strong differentiating feature. For now, however, melancholia seems best considered a state-dependent depression-type strongly associated with greater symptomatic severity, rather than a distinct syndrome. Its DSM-5 current status as a depression-type specifier seems appropriate, and it may be a logical target for genetic and other biomedical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Sani
- Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.,Department of Psychiatry, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Leonardo Tondo
- Centro Lucio Bini, Rome, Italy.,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.,International Consortium for the Research on Mood and Psychotic Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
| | - Juan Undurraga
- International Consortium for the Research on Mood and Psychotic Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.,Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Clínica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile.,Early Intervention Program, Instituto Psiquiátrico Dr J. Horwitz Barak, Santiago, Chile
| | - Gustavo H Vázquez
- International Consortium for the Research on Mood and Psychotic Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Paola Salvatore
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.,International Consortium for the Research on Mood and Psychotic Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.,Section of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Ross J Baldessarini
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.,International Consortium for the Research on Mood and Psychotic Disorders, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
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