“New Insights, New Directions for Treating Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder” to be Presented as Part of NIH Clinical Center’s 2008 “Medicine for the Public” Series, Dec. 2

EPISODE #7
Uploaded:  November 20, 2008
Running Time:  3:53

SCHMALFELDT: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

Mood disorders are serious, debilitating, life-shortening illnesses.  They affect millions of people worldwide.  Chances are you know somebody who is affected.  To make current treatments work better and find new treatments, it is necessary to have a clearer understanding of mood disorders.  That’s the topic of the second lecture in the 2008 “Medicine for the Public” series, 7 pm December 2nd in the Lipsett Ampitheater at the NIH Clinical Center.  Dr. Carlos A. Zarate, Chief of Experimental Therapeutics, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, Division of Intramural Research Programs at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health will present the topic.

ZARATE: Depression and bi-polar disorder, commonly referred to as severe mood disorder, lead to significant impairment and disability.  It’s estimated that it’s one of the leading causes if disability worldwide and by the year 2020 it will be the leading cause of disability worldwide.  Not only is there significant disability, but there is also significant morbidity.  Most of the time you find that there are other medical conditions associated with depression and bi-polar disorder, and those medical conditions’ prognoses are made much worse just having depression.  And then there’s also a risk of mortality.  Patients with mood disorders generally have increased rates of suicidal behaviors and are at risk for harming themselves.

SCHMALFELDT: Dr. Zarate’s presentation will center on new insights and new directions for treatment of major depression and bipolar disorder.

ZARATE: We are coming up with new concepts on what we consider improvement in response.  Traditionally, it’s been viewed that about half of the people respond after about 10 to 14 weeks of treatment.  That means they’re still left with some significant residual symptoms.  The treatments now need to be more aggressive, so even if you have two symptoms, one needs to be more aggressive to eliminate those symptoms because just the mere fact of having one or two symptoms increases dramatically the risk of relapse.  Not all of the treatments currently available are effective for all patients, so we need to go to new molecules, new neurotransmitter systems and hope that we have treatments that lead to better improvements in terms of elimination of symptoms and improved function and quality of life.  And so there are some exciting insights and new directions in drug development

SCHMALFELDT: The bottom line, Dr. Zarate suggested, is that patients and mental health care providers should be active partners in a patient’s treatment plan.

ZARATE: One needs to be very assertive in the treatment approaches that one takes to optimize outcome and function.

SCHMALFELDT: “Medicine for the Public” is a series of lectures on disease-related topics by NIH scientists, sponsored by the NIH Clinical Center.  The lectures are free and open to the public. Since 1977, the series has provided the public with the latest information on medical research.  For more information, including info on all four “Medicine for the Public” presentations, log on to  http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov.  From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been Episode One of CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.  In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. 

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