The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved AstraZeneca’s once-daily Extended-Release Tablets, SEROQUEL XR (quetiapine fumarate) for the acute treatment of episodes of depression and mania related to bipolar disorder. In the long term, patients suffering from this disease may experience depressive symptoms as long as three times to that of manic symptoms. It must be noted that this is the first such medication approved buy the regulatory authority for treating the serious psychiatric illness.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared Neuronetics, Inc.’s NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) system for treating Major Depressive Disorder in adults whose condition did not improve by the intake of minimally effective dose of an antidepressant. A non-systemic and non-invasive solution for depression, the NeuroStar TMS device delivers magnetic pulses to stimulate nerve cells of that area of the brain which is associated with depression. Patients do not need to be anesthetized and the whole outpatient procedure is over in 40 minutes.

UCI researchers are studying handheld electrical devices that have been invented by Dr. Leon Silverstone and are being prepared for regulatory approval by NeuroMed Devices Inc. These devices aim at combating pain and depression by attacking the nervous system. While this technology’s therapeutic effects are supported by case studies, there is not much hard data from scientifically controlled clinical trials, a shortcoming that UCI aims to overcome through its study, with funding from NeuroMed.