79.3% of psychiatrists recommended immediate antidepressant treatment for a person with depression, but only 39.1% would follow that recommendation themselves.
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These findings are from a randomised experimental study of 515 psychiatrists in @thebjpsych which aimed to determine if the question, ‘What would you do if you were me, doctor?’ leads psychiatrists to reveal their personal preferences. 2/10 cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Psychiatrists were either asked to imagine: 1) treating an out-patient with depressive symptoms or 2) that they had depressive symptoms themselves and were being treated by a psychiatrist as an out-patient. 3/10
The two treatment options to choose from were immediate treatment with an antidepressant and watchful waiting. 4/10
In the regular recommendation role and the what-would-you-do role, psychiatrists were asked to indicate what kind of treatment they would recommend. In the self role, the psychiatrists were requested to decide what treatment option they would prefer if they had depression. 5/10
Psychiatrists in the what-would-you-do role and in the regular recommendation role more often chose an antidepressant than psychiatrists in the self role (what-would-you-do role 81.4%, regular recommendation role 79.3%, self role 39.1%). 6/10
Why do psychiatrists choose different treatments for themselves than for their patients? 7/10
Alternative treatment options for mild to moderate depression, such as exercise, are not routinely taught during training and lead many clinicians to believe that antidepressants (or psychotherapy) are the only answer to treat depression. 8/10bmj.com/content/384/bm…
In fact, current Canadian guidelines recommend exercise and first-line monotherapy for mild- to moderate depression. 9/10journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07…
Therefore, we must provide our patients with all treatment options in order to devise a treatment plan that ensures optimal outcomes and minimizes the discrepancy of what we would recommend to ourselves vs. our patients. 10/10
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Skipping breakfast is associated with an increased odds of depression.
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These findings are from a meta-analysis of 14 studies (399,550 individuals) in Nutritional Neuroscience which aimed to summarize the evidence on the association between skipping breakfast and mental health. 2/8 tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
The study inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) investigated the association between breakfast consumption and mental health; (2) observational design; (3) reported an effect size measure. 3/8
P-hacking, or repeating statistical analyses until nonsignificant results become significant, is prevalent in science.
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These findings are from a perspective in @PLOSBiology which used text-mining to demonstrate that p-hacking is widespread in published literature. 2/10 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ar…
Current scientific practices create strong incentives to publish statistically significant (i.e., “positive”) results, and there is evidence that journals, especially prestigious ones with higher impact factors, disproportionately publish statistically significant results. 3/10
Placebos are not inert, but exert measurable biological effects in psychiatry.
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This discussion is from a review in Psychological Medicine, which found that the placebo response in psychiatric illness is important and clinically relevant, but remains poorly understood. 2/10 cambridge.org/core/journals/…
A placebo is an inert substance or sham procedure given either as a form of psychological reassurance or to act as a control when testing the efficacy of active treatment; however, placebos are not inert in terms of outcomes. 3/10
Antidepressant efficacy is inflated by the cumulative impact of publication bias, outcome reporting bias, spin, and citation bias on the evidence base.
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This discussion is from an editorial in Psychological Medicine which analyzed the cumulative impact of biases on apparent efficacy for antidepressants. 2/12 cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Publication bias is the failure to publish the results of a study on the basis of the direction or strength of the study findings. Oftentimes, studies which have statistically significant positive results get published and the negative studies do not. 3/12
An average of 1.5 h/day spent in outdoor light is associated with a lower depression risk.
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These findings are from a study of 380,976 initially depression-free individuals in @transl_psych which aimed to determine if depression risk can be offset by time spent in outdoor light. 2/8 nature.com/articles/s4139…
Participants in the UK Biobank were recruited and reported the duration they spent in outdoor light on a typical day in summer and winter. Follow-up was terminated until participants developed depression, death, or the study endpoint. 3/8
Ghrelin is associated with elevated mood after an overnight fast in people with depression.
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These findings are from a cross-sectional study of 103 people in @psychiatryresj which aimed to determine the role of circulating neuropeptides from the gut in modulating depressive symptoms. 2/8 sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Participants were included from an ongoing study on the gut-brain axis in depression, which included 52 people with depression and 51 healthy controls. 3/8clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05318…