Psilocybin, a naturally occurring and psychedelic compound of the Psilocybe species of mushrooms, has garnered the most attention.
Psilocybin is essentially a serotonin 2A agonist. Theoretically, this action should mediate depressive symptoms, but we don’t know for sure because no available antidepressants are direct agonists of this receptor. Researchers from the United Kingdom set out to see if this is indeed the case.

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Since 2011, 3 new antidepressants have been approved by the FDA, and another (ketamine) has been generating buzz as a potential off-label medication for depression. In this article, we’ll take a step back and review the data on vilazodone (Viibryd), levomilnacipran (Fetzima), vortioxetine (Brintellix), and ketamine.

Previous studies have shown that children who are bullied or who bully others are at higher-than-normal risk to have psychiatric disorders as adults. It’s tempting to blame the bullying—but it’s possible that the development of adult problems was driven not by bullying, but rather by preexisting psychiatric disorders in childhood.

Dr. Bodkin discusses methods for approaching treatment resistant depression and his perspective on depressive illness as a final common pathway for a number of different brain problems.

Many studies have shown that light therapy works for seasonal affective disorder, but does it work for non-seasonal major depression? That’s less clear. Systematic reviews have yielded inconclusive results, in part because prior studies have had methodological weaknesses. A new study with a robust design was just published.

Today, the idea that adolescents and children, even young children, can have a major depressive disorder is widely accepted. This article presents a series of case studies to illustrate ways of evaluating depression in children.

In October of 2004, the FDA announced to drug companies that they should add black-box warnings about the risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents started on antidepressants. How have these black-box warnings affected clinical practice over the past decade?

This Expert Q&A covers key things that John Walkup, MD, looks for in child and adolescent patients with depression to determine how they are likely to respond to different kinds of medication.

Geriatric depression often presents with apathy, low energy and motivation, and cognitive decline, so theoretically stimulants are a natural choice. Past studies of combining stimulants with antidepressants have been mainly small open trials, with mostly positive results. But we haven’t seen the kind of rigorous double-blind methodology we’d like. A new study fills that gap.