The World Health Organization estimates that more than 350 million individuals of all ages have depression and approximately one-third of all patients with depression fail to respond to conventional antidepressant therapies like SSRI’s.

The good news is that today, perhaps more than ever, good science is starting to illuminate some of the underlying biological mechanisms surrounding the development of depression. This new understanding may soon help the clinical world develop new approaches to treatment that may be vastly more effective and for a greater number of people than the traditional approaches.

Publications mentioned:

• Antidepressants versus placebo in major depression: an overview

• Inflammation: Depression Fans the Flames and Feasts on the Heat

• Association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with de novo major depression.

• Sex Differences in Depressive and Socioemotional Responses to an Inflammatory Challenge: Implications for Sex Differences in Depression

• Dopaminergic Mechanisms of Reduced Basal Ganglia Responses to Hedonic Reward During Interferon Alfa Administration

• Inflammation-induced anhedonia: endotoxin reduces ventral striatum responses to reward.

• Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels

• Endurance exercise increases skeletal muscle kynurenine aminotransferases and plasma kynurenic acid in humans

• Psychological stress and corticotropin-releasing hormone increase intestinal permeability in humans by a mast cell-dependent mechanism

• Neurobiology: Rise of resilience

• First biological marker for major depression could enable better diagnosis, treatment

• Low to moderate sugar-sweetened beverage consumption impairs glucose and lipid metabolism and promotes inflammation in healthy young men: a randomized controlled trial

• Sweetened-Beverages, Coffee, and Tea in Relation to Depression among Older US Adults (P05.122)

• Consuming highly refined carbohydrates increases risk of depression