- With Mayo Clinic psychiatrist
David Mrazek, M.D.
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David Mrazek, M.D.
David Mrazek, M.D.
Dr. David A. Mrazek is chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and a professor of psychiatry at College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. Dr. Mrazek has developed a federally funded psychiatric pharmacogenomics research program and implemented clinical psychiatric pharmacogenomics services at Mayo Clinic.
He has received numerous awards including the Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education from the American College of Psychiatrists and the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Distinguished Career Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association. He currently serves as chairman of the board of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Dr. Mrazek has focused his current efforts on using pharmacogenomics testing to improve clinical care. One of his specific goals is to decrease the risks of taking psychiatric medications.
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Depression blog
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Sept. 3, 2010
Keep looking for right depression medication
By David Mrazek, M.D.
We talk about depression as if it were a single entity.
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For many of you with depression, when you take an antidepressant medication, you'll feel better. I conducted a study supported by the National Institutes of Health, rather than a pharmaceutical company, to try to identify which patients will respond to escitalopram, known as Lexapro, and which ones will not. We treated more than 600 patients with moderately severe depression. Half of the patients who took the antidepressant were feeling well within two months, and another 20 percent were feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, 30 percent were not much better.
If depression is a new problem, you have every reason to be optimistic you'll be among the 70 percent of patients who have a good response to antidepressant treatment. When an antidepressant does work, both you and your doctor are grateful.
However, a dangerous situation can evolve if a series of antidepressant medications don't work. If no medication provides relief after a reasonable number have been tried, it becomes clear that you're suffering from treatment-resistant depression and that another form of treatment needs to be tried. However, you should have the opportunity to try all of the classes of antidepressant medications before coming to the conclusion that medications won't help.
A really critical problem for many of you is that you can't get access to appropriate medical care. This is what healthcare reform should be about. Everyone should have access to effective treatments. Unfortunately, many still don't.
A final thought is that making a persistent effort to find an effective treatment usually results in success. For those of you who can't find help, this isn't comforting. However, for those who do have access to care, the odds of being able to feel well again are good.
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