Depression Treatment: Direct Health Care Costs of Treating Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Comparison of Light Therapy and Fluoxetine.
Direct health care costs of treating seasonal affective disorder: a comparison of light therapy and fluoxetine.
Filed under: Depression Treatment
Depress Res Treat. 2012; 2012: 628434
Cheung A, Dewa C, Michalak EE, Browne G, Levitt A, Levitan RD, Enns MW, Morehouse RL, Lam RW
Objective. To compare the direct mental health care costs between individuals with Seasonal Affective Disorder randomized to either fluoxetine or light therapy. Methods. Data from the CANSAD study was used. CANSAD was an 8-week multicentre double-blind study that randomized participants to receive either light therapy plus placebo capsules or placebo light therapy plus fluoxetine. Participants were aged 18-65 who met criteria for major depressive episodes with a seasonal (winter) pattern. Mental health care service use was collected for each subject for 4 weeks prior to the start of treatment and for 4 weeks prior to the end of treatment. All direct mental health care services costs were analysed, including inpatient and outpatient services, investigations, and medications. Results. The difference in mental health costs was significantly higher after treatment for the light therapy group compared to the medication group-a difference of $ 111.25 (z = -3.77, P = 0.000). However, when the amortized cost of the light box was taken into the account, the groups were switched with the fluoxetine group incurring greater direct care costs-a difference of $ 75.41 (z = -2.635, P = 0.008). Conclusion. The results suggest that individuals treated with medication had significantly less mental health care cost after-treatment compared to those treated with light therapy.
HubMed – depression
Amplitude of low-frequency oscillations in first-episode, treatment-naive patients with major depressive disorder: a resting-state functional MRI study.
Filed under: Depression Treatment
PLoS One. 2012; 7(10): e48658
Wang L, Dai W, Su Y, Wang G, Tan Y, Jin Z, Zeng Y, Yu X, Chen W, Wang X, Si T
Resting-state fMRI is a novel approach to measure spontaneous brain activity in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Although most resting-state fMRI studies have focused on the examination of temporal correlations between low-frequency oscillations (LFOs), few studies have explored the amplitude of these LFOs in MDD. In this study, we applied the approaches of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and fractional ALFF to examine the amplitude of LFOs in MDD.A total of 36 subjects, 18 first-episode, treatment-naive patients with MDD matched with 18 healthy controls (HCs) completed the fMRI scans. Compared with HCs, MDD patients showed increased ALFF in the right fusiform gyrus and the right anterior and posterior lobes of the cerebellum but decreased ALFF in the left inferior temporal gyrus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule, and right lingual gyrus. The fALFF in patients was significantly increased in the right precentral gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, bilateral fusiform gyrus, and bilateral anterior and posterior lobes of the cerebellum but was decreased in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral middle temporal gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, and right inferior parietal lobule. After taking gray matter (GM) volume as a covariate, the results still remained.These findings indicate that MDD patients have altered LFO amplitude in a number of regions distributed over the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital cortices and the cerebellum. These aberrant regions may be related to the disturbances of multiple emotion- and cognition-related networks observed in MDD and the apparent heterogeneity in depressive symptom domains. Such brain functional alteration of MDD may contribute to further understanding of MDD-related network imbalances demonstrated in previous fMRI studies.
HubMed – depression
Modeling the contributions of ca(2+) flows to spontaneous ca(2+) oscillations and cortical spreading depression-triggered ca(2+) waves in astrocyte networks.
Filed under: Depression Treatment
PLoS One. 2012; 7(10): e48534
Li B, Chen S, Zeng S, Luo Q, Li P
Astrocytes participate in brain functions through Ca(2+) signals, including Ca(2+) waves and Ca(2+) oscillations. Currently the mechanisms of Ca(2+) signals in astrocytes are not fully clear. Here, we present a computational model to specify the relative contributions of different Ca(2+) flows between the extracellular space, the cytoplasm and the endoplasmic reticulum of astrocytes to the generation of spontaneous Ca(2+) oscillations (CASs) and cortical spreading depression (CSD)-triggered Ca(2+) waves (CSDCWs) in a one-dimensional astrocyte network. This model shows that CASs depend primarily on Ca(2+) released from internal stores of astrocytes, and CSDCWs depend mainly on voltage-gated Ca(2+) influx. It predicts that voltage-gated Ca(2+) influx is able to generate Ca(2+) waves during the process of CSD even after depleting internal Ca(2+) stores. Furthermore, the model investigates the interactions between CASs and CSDCWs and shows that the pass of CSDCWs suppresses CASs, whereas CASs do not prevent the generation of CSDCWs. This work quantitatively analyzes the generation of astrocytic Ca(2+) signals and indicates different mechanisms underlying CSDCWs and non-CSDCWs. Research on the different types of Ca(2+) signals might help to understand the ways by which astrocytes participate in information processing in brain functions.
HubMed – depression
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