Charles Debattista, MD

Fatigue and poor sleep send patients to primary care, but a CBC and a thyroid panel will not find depression. The panel examines what actually separates major depression from its mimics.

Depression rarely arrives named. The panel opens on the presentations that mask it, the risk factors worth flagging in primary care, and the lag between first symptom and adequate treatment.

Explore rapid TRD breakthroughs: accelerated TMS like SAINT, emerging neuromodulation tools, near-term psychedelic therapies, and why sharper diagnosis improves outcomes.

Venlafaxine (Effexor) is a novel antidepressant recently released to the American market. Its entry into the antidepressant market has been much heralded. The lay press has described the drug as "Prozac with a punch," and many patients were asking for it long before it was available. As the hoopla settles down, we are learning that venlafaxine is a potentially important drug with both advantages and disadvantages over other available antidepressants, including the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).