The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is tasked with enforcing safety and health legislation, should take doctors-in-training under its purview, consumer and health advocacy groups said today in a petition sent to the agency. Resident physicians work shifts as long as 30 hours as often as three times a week, which can lead to physician fatigue and medical errors. Exhausted resident physicians are at increased risk of being in a car crash and suffering from depression, pregnancy complications and needle sticks, research shows…

Clinical depression and anxiety during pregnancy results in smaller babies that are more likely to die in infancy, according to new research published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. The study, which focused on women living in rural Bangladesh, provides the first finding of its kind in a non-Western population. The research indicates that mental health issues are likely to be a primary contributor to infant mortality and poor child health, above poverty, malnutrition or low socio-economic status…

Current antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have many side-effects, among others slowing down brain activity, which in turn reduces patients’ ability to react. These side-effects could be eliminated if genes that counteract seizures could be introduced into the brain. Professor Merab Kokaia at Lund University in Sweden has obtained promising results in animal experiments. Epilepsy is a fairly common condition, affecting around 1 in every 100 people in Sweden. It increases the risk of depression, sudden death, injury and disability…

Sun Pharma announced that USFDA has granted an approval for an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) to market a generic version of Venlafaxine Hydrochloride Extended Release tablets. These generic extended release Venlafaxine tablets are therapeutically equivalent to Osmotica’s Venlafaxine Hydrochloride Extended Release tablets and include three strengths: 37.5 mg (base), 75 mg (base), 150 mg (base). Venlafaxine Hydrochloride extended release tablets are indicated for the management of major depressive disorder. The product will reach the market shortly…

An antidepressant can alleviate symptoms of major depression in women experiencing or about to experience menopause, according to a study released today led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher. The research compared the effectiveness and safety of the antidepressant desvenlafaxine, known as Pristiq, to a placebo in a double-blind trial led by Susan G. Kornstein, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology in the VCU School of Medicine. It was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry…

The American Psychiatric Association is urging BP claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg to treat requests for reimbursement for mental health care the same as other health claims related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. “Mental illnesses brought on by difficult situations surrounding the BP oil spill may be less visible than other injuries, but they are real. An entire way of life has been destroyed, and this is causing anxiety, depression, post- traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, thoughts of suicide and other problems,” said APA President Carol A Bernstein, M.D…

Eliminating diabetes and depression, as well as increasing education and fruit and vegetable consumption, are likely to have the biggest impact on reducing levels of dementia in the coming years, should no effective treatment be found, concludes a new study.

(MedPage Today) — In-person counseling and telephone support designed to help female victims of intimate-partner violence did not improve symptoms of depression in a randomized trial conducted in China.

Higher intakes of two B vitamins (MedPage Today) — but not folate — may help ward off depression among older people, particularly if they take supplements, according to a large population study.

Psychiatry, unlike many other areas of medicine, lacks diagnostic blood tests. Blood tests have been extremely useful in helping doctors make medical diagnoses and aiding them in treatment options for conditions and diseases in most medical fields. An article in Biological Psychiatry reports that Dutch researchers may eventually generate blood tests for psychiatric conditions, such as depression…