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Post by Admin on Oct 11, 2016 16:42:44 GMT -4
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Post by Amir Al-Dabagh on Oct 11, 2016 18:07:31 GMT -4
I can't say I'm a strong supporter of this method or this research. The study only had 80 patients and although this is a decent number, they should be followed after they received the 'appropriate' treatment. At the same time, running MRI scans on everyone is not just an 'upfront' cost, it costs a lot of money to scan everyone who has depression or 10% of the population. I think going with the traditional therapy of trying out first line medications and then moving on to other classes may be the best we have now. Perhaps more research will expose better ways.
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Post by Farnaz Jafari on Oct 11, 2016 18:56:31 GMT -4
I'm actually in favor of this research for two main reasons. One, just like our heart, lungs, bones... Our brain needs to get checked out. Unfortunately we don't have enough knowledge of the events that are taking place in our brain. Our brain which is in charge of our entire boy is deserve to get more attention. Maybe by doing this we can end up preventing some neurological diesease or catch them early before it's too late. Second, if doctors know before hand that medication is not a solution and it's not going to work for specific patient, they can start with alternate pathways that can be more helpful to the patient. That can save both parties lots of time and energy. It's more beneficial for patient because they don't have to waste their money for bunch of medicines that not only going to fix their problem but could hurt them with dangerous side effects and caused them more harm.
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Post by Betsy Joseph on Oct 11, 2016 23:32:46 GMT -4
Although I understand why doctor's are doing this research, I am not particularly in favor. The article says that in the research that along with the MRI, the 80 people were prescribed one of three popular antidepressants. Regardless of whether or not a patient gets an MRI to see how the amygdala functions, the medication part of it is still a trial and error that will take time to work. MRI's are costly, and therefore not practical to get done on everyone with depression (10% of the population). Also, to give up trying to see which medications work for a specific patient, already assuming that most won't work, is telling the patient to give up hope of feeling better. Furthermore, a thorough history should always be taken of the patient and if there was any childhood trauma, abuse, neglect, etc., a physician should refer the patient to counseling anyway, whether or not medications are working. It is up to the patient to decide if they actually want to or not.
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Post by Derek Childers MS3 on Oct 11, 2016 23:52:03 GMT -4
This is a good research idea and I understand why they are doing, but I am not sure how beneficial it would be to add an MRI in the equation. MRI’s are very costly so I don't believe they will be saving much money or if any just to see if the medication will work. I believe they need to find a way to figure this out because having to wait for the medication to kick in can just add more stress to the patient on top of everything else. Plus if the medication doesn't work then you have to wait for the other one to kick in to and is just to long of a process for someone with a mental illness.
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Post by Henry Ukwu on Oct 12, 2016 16:13:35 GMT -4
Depression is one of the main disorders affecting Americans today. As the article states, over 10% or Americans are diagnosed with depressions. While many people are able to be treated, about a half of the case have difficulty with finding the right medication, often “taking moths of cycling through different drugs until on starts to alleviate the mood disorder”. The frustration of finding a medication specific for one individual can lead to additional anxiety over one’s condition. This study needs to be done on a larger scale to be considered accurate, the problem with this research are the costs in doing the MRI studies. Although, this would be beneficial to look deeper into for more effective ways of approaching depression, it is still more economical to use first line medications proven to have success using evidence based medicine and modify for patients that are not as responsive.
HU(MS3)
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Aminah Phelps (MS3)
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Post by Aminah Phelps (MS3) on Oct 12, 2016 19:35:50 GMT -4
I thought this article was really interesting. Who would of thought that brain scans could help with medication treatment. I think it is really cool, but this is true. Everybody has a different metabolism, and responds to medications differently. It just shows how psychiatry and neurology intertwine. The article talked about, "The results suggest that for people with a history of early-life trauma and under-active amygdala, medication may not be the best first-line treatment to try." So what kind of treatment would you recommend for these kind of patients? Would therapy alone be sufficient for these patients? This is why personal care is very important, every patient is different and requires a different approach for every patient.
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Post by Lauren Levy on Oct 12, 2016 21:56:08 GMT -4
After reading this article, I can't say that I am in favor of this method. First of all, MRIs are extremely costly and it's hard to believe that we would save that much money, if any. Second, exposing all those individuals to un-needed radiation may increase for other diseases to pop up such as cancer. This study also used only 80 people with depression. I think it would help to follow these patients longterm to see if any side effects or illness manifest due to the radiation exposure. I agree that it is frustrating for both patients and doctors when a number of different medications are not working. Hopefully, more research in the future will reveal better ways to treat depression.
LL (MS3)
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Post by Muneeb Ahmad MS-3 on Oct 13, 2016 0:57:45 GMT -4
This article suggests that an anti-depressant's efficacy is dependent on the activity in a patient's amygdala. Essentially, the more activity that is detected via MRI, the more likely the patient will respond positively to anti-depressant medication. I believe this to be a very preliminary study. The details, furthermore, and metrics of the study were not mentioned in this article, nor was there any link provided to the actual paper. The article did mention the necessity of a more detailed assessment of patient childhood trauma. It also noted the importance of behavioral therapy in conjugation with drugs. In conclusion, I think this article reiterates the conventions of psychiatry: that patients respond better when drugs are combined with a more thorough evaluation and simultaneous behavioral therapy. Screening MRI's would not--in my judgement--provide a fair representation of the population of depressed patients who are amendable to pills. Again, drugs along with therapy would suffice. MRIs of amygdala's are redundant at best and wasteful expenditure of resources at worst.
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Post by Ahmad jarrar- ms 4 on Oct 13, 2016 9:54:36 GMT -4
Depression is one of the difficult disorders to diagnose and treat. Patients usually try to hide their illness and denies having any symptoms due to the stigma of having a mental illness. Even though this is not the best study method due to small sample size and costly tests used but it still provides a new way of managing depression. One of the main advantages of this research that it focuses on how depression affects the function of the amygdala in the brain. It provides new way of monitoring depression treatment and how it affects brain function. It is important to follow up on this research by using a larger sample of patients and maybe wide variety of antidepressants medications. I think this study will serve as an important initial research for more vital research in this area in the future.
AJ ( MS 4)
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Lawrence Takungo MS3
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Post by Lawrence Takungo MS3 on Oct 13, 2016 15:42:21 GMT -4
This is a good start in targeting patients for better response to antidepressants and psychotherapy. The ability to detect which patient is good for counseling and which is good for medication is great, but to achieve that according to the article, we will need to do an MRI of the brain. This might contribute in making treatment of depression even more expensive. Thus, I will suggest a cost comparison between MRI versus trying two to three different antidepressants before psychotherapy, or combination therapy of antidepressant and psychotherapy. I also think more research should be performed to find a cheaper means of making the distinction between those good for counseling versus those good for medication by finding another means of differentiating between an under-active amygdala versus an active amygdala without the use of MRI.
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Post by Titiksha Sharma on Oct 13, 2016 16:19:38 GMT -4
Although I find the idea of this research interesting,I am not fully convinced with the conclusion.First of all the research was conducted in a very small number of patients which does not seem reliable.Furthermore,it would be really costly for the patients to have mandatory brain scans. However,the positive aspect is that we could save patients from numerous side effects of the antidepressants.We could minimize the number of antidepressants that we use and treat the depression more precisely. If we can overcome this problem with the sample size and reduce the costs of treatment,it could turn out to be really beneficial for the treatment of depression.
TS (EXT)
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Post by Elvis Oppong on Oct 13, 2016 21:53:15 GMT -4
The predictive model of using brain scans to treat depressed is an interesting idea. The study sounds very enticing as it makes it easier for physicians to come up with treatment plans based on the brain scan results but I’m still not convinced. Diagnostic brain scan in my opinion is not reliable since it is not standardized everywhere. Because of this reason, brain scan results could vary. Also, establishing a baseline via conducting several studies over the years will make it more concrete; this study is still fairly new. The price tag is another issue patients will have to worry about, as it is very costly to run a brain scan. Hopefully something is done about the price once a baseline is established.
Elvis Oppong (MS3)
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Shirin Ganjali MS-3
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Post by Shirin Ganjali MS-3 on Oct 13, 2016 22:15:05 GMT -4
This article highlights a very interesting and novel approach to developing a medical regimen for patients that are suffering from depression. Advancements in science and better understanding of the pathological mechanisms that contribute to mental illness will ultimately change how clinicians approach treatment options. As the article suggested, there seems to be more or less a “shot gun” approach to treating depression. Utilizing brain scans in such a way to tailor medication towards depressed patients can lead to several benefits: patients not needing to jump from medication to medication, not subjecting the patient to futile medications, and ostensibly better outcomes in less time. One aspect of utilizing brain scans to tailor medication options that I find interesting is that it will lead to a gradual divergence from utilizing clinical criteria ( which are arguably subjective to clinical judgement), to utilizing a scan that offers a bit more objective way of making treatment options. Given that there is a lot of social stigma surrounding mental illness, perhaps utilizing a brain scan can further convince society that mental illness is just that- it’s an illness and that it is rooted in biological pathology.
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Post by Cyndi Odipo MS4 on Oct 13, 2016 22:58:17 GMT -4
It is interesting how management of psychiatric disorders could be more efficient with analysis of neurological anatomy, via MRI examination to elicit amygdala response to stimuli. Many individuals have been through various medical regimens in regards to antidepressants, where it is a trial and error format. I wonder if it would be cost effective in the long run, and how many individuals will be willing to participate in this form of treatment. Further, out of curiosity, do other neurological chemical imbalances play apart in affecting one’s depression symptoms? If so how does it directly effect on the amygdala response mechanism. Additionally, clinical practice today depends on evidence based practice. Therefore, with this being a new study, it will be interesting to see how many physicians embrace this new mode of diagnosis.
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