Antidepressant side effects - Brain activity flags patient vulnerability.

[HuckleB]

Antidepressant side effects - Brain activity prior to treatment flags vulnerability

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=22046

"In a finding that opens new doors to determining susceptibility to antidepressant side effects, researchers at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute report that changes in brain activity prior to treatment with antidepressants can flag patient vulnerability.

Published in the April 2005 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychopharmacology, the study is the first to link brain function and medication side effects, and to show a relationship between brain function changes during brief placebo treatment and later side effects during treatment with medication.

The study's unique design compares brain function changes in healthy research subjects with no history of depression while taking an antidepressant vs. placebo, a pill with inactive ingredients. In addition, all participants took only placebo for one week prior to randomization to medication or placebo.

Using "cordance," a quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) imaging technique developed at UCLA, the research team found changes in brain function in the prefrontal region during the one-week placebo lead-in were related to side effects in subjects who received an antidepressant.

..."