Journal of psychiatric research
November 1, 2023
Hui Kou, Wei Luo, Xinnan Liu et al.
11 citations
Eight weeks of mindfulness training reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample of 80 adults, with effects lasting at least three months. The training also shifted attention: participants became more attentive to happy faces and less attentive to sad faces compared to a control group. The change in attention to sad faces partially explained the reduction in depression immediately after training, but this attentional mechanism played only a limited role in symptom improvement overall. The study suggests mindfulness improves emotional symptoms through multiple pathways, not solely by altering attention to emotional faces.
PLoS medicine
April 1, 2026
Yifan Li, Vivien Kin Yi Chan, Mark Jit et al.
Esketamine nasal spray, a rapid-acting antidepressant for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), was not cost-effective compared with most commonly used third-line strategies in Hong Kong. A Markov model simulated adults with TRD over five years and compared esketamine plus an antidepressant against six alternatives: combination therapy (two antidepressants), augmentation (antipsychotic or lithium), psychotherapy alone, psychotherapy plus antidepressant, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) plus antidepressant, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) plus antidepressant. Esketamine's incremental cost-effectiveness ratios ranged from US$134,127 to US$312,750 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) versus augmentation, combination, psychotherapy, and psychotherapy plus antidepressant—all above a US$50,000/QALY threshold. It was more cost-effective than rTMS (dominated) and ECT (ICER: US$322,407/QALY). Combination therapy was the most cost-effective strategy. Findings rely on indirect comparisons and may not reflect real-world patients.