Two FDA advisory committees have voted 14-2 in favour of the use of esketamine for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The advisors found that the intranasal drug is effective in TRD, and that the benefits outweigh the risks. The esketamine program received a Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) in 2013 based on a phase II study of an intravenous formulation in treatment-resistant depression (Singh et al. Biol Psychiatry 2016;80:424-431). Read More
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Always online: problem or addiction?
February 13, 2019“Internet addiction” was first described in the dial-up era (Young KS. Psychol Rep 1996;79:899-902), with the prevalence steadily increasing with more widespread internet access. Five years ago, a meta-analysis reported a global prevalence of 6.0% (Cheng et al. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw 2014;17:755-760). More recent estimates have found a prevalence of 17.7% among adolescents in rural Japan (Kojima et al. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2019;73:20-26), and 38.2% among university students in Japan (Kitazawa et al. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2018;72:531-539). The range in prevalence is largely due to a lack of consensus on diagnostic criteria, which in itself is a reflection of a more fundamental controversy: is Internet overuse an “addiction” or only problematic? Read More
Hockey and head injury – report
February 6, 2019The Ice Hockey Summit III has published a list of action items to address the diagnosis, clinical care and prevention of sports-related concussion (Smith et al. Curr Sports Med Rep 2019;18:23-34). The report follows on guidelines on mild traumatic brain injury in children by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (Lumba-Brown et al. JAMA Pediatr 2018;172:e182853), and guidelines on the management of concussion by the American Academy of Neurology (Giza et al. Neurology 2013;80:2250-7). Read More
Two trials terminated in Alzheimer’s disease
January 31, 2019Roche has announced that it has terminated two phase III trials of crenezumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting beta-amyloid. The trials, CREAD 1 and CREAD 2, were evaluating the agent in prodromal to mild Alzheimer’s disease. Read More