The Week in Review: October 2-6

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This week, Psychiatric Times® discussed a wide variety of psychiatric issues and industry updates, from new research on treatment-resistant major depression to strategies for supporting trauma-affected refugee youth. Here are some highlights from the week.

Study Finds Esketamine Nasal Spray More Likely to Induce Remission in Treatment-Resistant MDD Than Quetiapine Extended Release

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A long-term clinical trial comparing esketamine CIII nasal spray with quetiapine extended release found that esketamine had greater success with inducing remission in participants with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD).

The clinical trial—a randomized, open-label, active-controlled, rater-blinded, phase 3b study called ESCAPE-TRD—aimed to evaluate the efficacy of flexibly dosed esketamine nasal spray (Johnson & Johnson’s Spravato) in comparison with the efficacy of quetiapine extended release, both when combined with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), in patients with treatment-resistant MDD. Continue Reading

Single-Dose Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Major Depression

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Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has been defined as failure of 2 different courses of treatment. Patients with TRD have greater duration of illness, illness severity, disability, physical illness, suicide risk, and economic costs than patients with treatment-responsive depression. Psilocybin has demonstrated antidepressant properties in patients with MDD and TRD.

The Current Study

Goodwin and colleagues conducted a phase 2 double-blind, dose-finding, parallel group, randomized controlled trial. The study sponsor, COMPASS Pathfinder, designed and funded the trial and provided a proprietary pharmaceutical-grade synthetic form of psilocybin (COMP360). Continue Reading

Study Supports Efficacy of 9-Item Depression Screening in Identifying Patients at Risk for Suicide

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October 5 is National Depression Screening Day. A recent study that compared the effectiveness of suicide screening and several types of depression screenings supported the efficacy of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in comparison to other screening tools. However, the study investigators also concluded that depression screening alone may not be sufficient to effectively identify suicide risk.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Wesleyan University, compared the effectiveness of suicide risk screening and depression screening alone among primary care patients. The study included 2744 patients between the ages of 18 and 89 years from 6 primary care clinics who completed several depression screenings—including the self-administered PHQ-9 and the 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2)—and the suicidal ideation (SI) screening, which focused on “thoughts of killing yourself” within the past week, within the past month, and during one’s entire lifespan. Continue Reading

From Crisis to Coping: Strategies for Supporting Trauma-Affected Refugee Youth

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More than 108.4 million individuals in the world are currently displaced. Of these, 29.4 million are refugees, 62.5 million are internally displaced in their home countries, and 52% of these originate from Syria, Ukraine, and Afghanistan. These statistics are from 2022, a year that saw a significant increase of 19 million newly displaced individuals as compared with 2021.

Children make up about 40% of all forcibly displaced individuals. Between 2018 and 2022, it is estimated that 1.9 million children were born as refugees. These startling numbers continue to rise each year, and as more children are being born as refugees, child- and adolescent-specific care becomes more and more important. While Syrians accounted for over 1 in 5 refugees globally, there was a massive increase in Ukrainian refugees in 2022, with numbers continuing to rise rapidly. This rise is the highest since World War II. Continue Reading

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