CNN (6/5, Rogers ) reports that approximately “15% of participants who discontinued antidepressants experienced withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, nausea, insomnia and irritability, according to” a “review of 79 studies…totaling 21,002 adult participants.” Investigators also found that “one in 35 participants experienced severe symptoms once they stopped taking antidepressants.” The findings were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study finds the rate of withdrawal from quitting antidepressants,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, June 5, 2024

CNN (6/4, Rogers ) reports, “Teens who spend lots of time on social media have complained of feeling like they can’t pay attention to more important things like homework or time with loved ones.” Now, “a new study has possibly captured that objectively, finding that for teens diagnosed with internet addiction, signaling between brain regions important for controlling attention, working memory and more was disrupted.” The results “are from a review, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Mental Health, of 12 neuroimaging studies of a few hundred adolescents ages 10 to 19 between 2013 and 2022.” The article adds, “Technology addictions have become prevalent enough for the American Psychiatric Association to include it as a topic in its presidential initiative for 2023 to 2024, said [Dr. Smita] Das, immediate past-chair of the APA’s council on addictions.”

Related Links:

— “How internet addiction may affect your teen’s brain, according to a new study,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, June 4, 2024

The AP (6/4, Johnson ) reports, “Specially trained service dogs helped ease PTSD symptoms in U.S. military veterans in a small study that the researchers hope will help expand options for service members.” In the study, “researchers compared 81 veterans who received service dogs with 75 veterans on the waiting list for a trained dog,” and “after three months, PTSD symptoms improved in both groups, but the veterans with dogs saw a bigger improvement on average than the veterans on the waiting list.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Service dogs helped ease PTSD symptoms in US military veterans, researchers say,”Carla K. Johnson, AP, June 4, 2024

The Washington Post (6/4, A1, Gilbert , Ovalle ) reports, “A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee overwhelmingly voted Tuesday that evidence is lacking that MDMA-assisted therapy is effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, and that the benefits don’t outweigh the risks to patients, dealing a potential blow to what could be the first psychedelic treatment the agency approves.” The panel’s “vote is not binding. Still, its recommendation could hold great weight as the FDA decides for the first time whether the mind-altering compound – better known by its street name, ecstasy, and long categorized among the riskiest of controlled substances – can be legally used as a medical treatment in the United States.”

The AP (6/4, Perrone ) reports the advisory panel “voted 10-1 against the overall benefits of MDMA when used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. They cited flawed study data, questionable research conduct and significant drug risks, including the potential for heart problems, injury and abuse.” Committee members “pointed to flawed studies that could have skewed the results, missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity among participants.” Because the drug “causes intense, psychological experiences, almost all patients in two key studies of the drug were able to guess whether they had received the MDMA or a dummy pill. That’s the opposite of the approach generally required for high-quality drug research, in which bias is minimized by ‘blinding’ patients and researchers to whether they received the drug under investigation.”

The New York Times (6/4, Jacobs ) reports the drug’s sponsor, Lykos Therapeutics, “submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to obtain agency approval to sell the drug legally to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.” However, on Friday, FDA staff “raised concerns about ‘significant increases’ in blood pressure and pulse rates among some of the participants in the Lykos clinical trials, noting those were risks that could ‘trigger cardiovascular events.’”

Reuters (6/4, Roy, Jain) reports that during the meeting, FDA staff “said there was a ‘striking lack’ of documentation of abuse related adverse events, which may limit the agency’s ability to explain the effects of MDMA or determine its abuse liability.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (6/3, Rollet ) reports, “In the first year after stopping anabolic steroid misuse, men had worse sexual function than those who continued using or never used the agents as well as more depression and anxiety, according to a presenter at ENDO 2024.” In a study, “men who had stopped using steroids had lower sexual function scores (IIEF-15 = 70; 95% CI, 67-71) compared with current users (IIEF-15 = 64; 95% CI, 60-67) and past users (IIEF-15 = 64; 95% CI, 60-67; P = .0009).” Additionally, “recent steroid cessation was associated with higher depression scores (BDI-II = 7; 95% CI, 4-11) compared with no past steroid use (BDI-II = 3; 95% CI, 1-6; P = .0079).”

Related Links:

— “Mental health, sexual function worsen for men in first year of quitting steroids,”Jill Rollet, Healio, June 3, 2024