Teens with suicidal thoughts and elevated depression had a stronger and faster reduction in their symptoms when treated using family therapy as opposed to standard treatment in the community, according to a new report in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The researchers studied 66 children between the ages of 12 to 17 who sought treatment in primary care settings or emergency rooms with severe suicidal thinking and depression symptoms.

Parental participation in the study was required, with parents being viewed "not as the problem, but as the curative medicine," according to study author Guy S. Diamond, Ph.D., director of the Center for Family Intervention Science of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Most treatment models mainly work with the adolescents alone, helping them learn new coping and problem solving strategies," said Diamond, "but adolescents are highly influenced by their parents. Family conflict, chaos and strife can contribute to youth suicide, while at the same time family love, trust and communication can buffer against it."

In the study, those teens who had severe suicidal thinking and received Attachment-based Family Therapy (ABFT) were at least four times more likely to have no suicidal thinking at the end of treatment or three months of treatment compared to those patients who received treatment in the community. Those who received ABFT also showed a more rapid decrease in depression symptoms.

In the future, Diamond's team will focus on a broader population of patients, comparing ABFT with other treatments and looking at long-term outcomes.

According to a newly published study, mothers who were depressed during pregnancy were four times more likely to have children who exhibited antisocial behavior during their teen years.

The study included 120 inner-city teens and their mothers. The mothers were interviewed while pregnant, following giving birth and when the children were 4, 11 and 16 years old.

In addition to the link between maternal depression and antisocial teens, the researchers found that women who were prone to aggressive and disruptive behavior during their teens were more likely to become depressed during their pregnancies, which shows, say the researchers, that a mother's history predicts her children's behavior.

"Although it's not yet clear exactly how depression in pregnancy might set infants on a pathway toward increased antisocial behavior, our findings suggest that women with a history of conduct problems who become depressed in pregnancy may be in special need of support," wrote study author Dale F. Hay, in a press release.

The study appears in the January/February issue of Child Development.

According to a new study scheduled to appear in the February issue of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, women who take SSRI antidepressants may experience delayed lactation after giving birth and may need additional support if they chose to breastfeed.

"The breasts are serotonin-regulated glands," said study co-author Dr. Nelson Horseman of the University of Cincinnati, which means that "the breasts' ability to secrete milk at the right time is closely related to the body's production and regulation of the hormone serotonin." Commonly used antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil all belong to a class of drugs called SSRIs, which affect serotonin re-uptake, and might also affect serotonin regulation in the breast.

The study looked at the effects of SSRI antidepressants on lactation in the lab by using human and animal cell lines as well as genetically modified mice. In addition, an observational study was carried out which examined 431 mothers who had just given birth.

In the observational study, the median onset of lactation for mothers who had been taking SSRIs was 85.8 hours after childbirth, compared to 69.1 hours in women who had not taken SSRIs. Anything past 72 hours is commonly considered to be delayed lactation by researchers.

"SSRI drugs are very helpful medications for many moms, so understanding and ameliorating difficulties moms experience can help them achieve their goals for breastfeeding their babies," noted Horseman. "More human research is needed before we can make specific recommendations regarding SSRI use during breastfeeding."

Patients who receive the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro) appeared to do better in recovering their thinking, learning and memory skills than those who took a placebo or who participated in problem-solving therapy, according to an article published in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

According to background information in the article, there is growing interest in therapies which can be administered in the first few months after a stroke, which is the time period when there is the most spontaneous recovery of lost motor and cognitive skills. Antidepressants are believed to be potentially helpful to stroke patients in their recovery because they stimulate production of substances essential for nerve cell growth.

Dr. Ricardo E. Jorge and his associates at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, studied one particular antidepressant, escitalopram, by randomly assigning a group of 129 stroke patients to receive either the drug or a placebo or to participate in problem-solving therapy.

Following 12 weeks of treatment, the patients taking the antidepressant had higher scores in neuropsychological tests assessing their thinking, learning and memory than the other two patient groups. More importantly, the authors noted, the changes resulted in an improvement in related activities of daily living.

According to the article, there is increasing evidence that antidepressants causes changes in brain structure, which may be responsible for the improvements seen in this study. Jorge noted, however, that "whatever may be the mechanism of improved cognitive recovery...the utility of antidepressants in the process of post-stroke recovery deserves to be further investigated."