"Everything You Wanted to Know About Depression"

Up to 17% of the population will experience an episode of depression at some point in their lives, and 50% will experience at least one more episode. Episodes of depression can range from mild to severe and can also be a phase of bipolar disorder. While everyone experiences depression as a unique experience, core symptoms and behaviors can help people recognize when depression becomes a problem. The good news is that many treatments for depression can bring people relief and decrease the probability of future episodes. These treatments range from evidence-based psychotherapy to medications and neurotherapeutics such as electroconvulsive therapy and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. This talk will cover the basics of depression and provide an overview of available and potential future treatments.

.Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD, is the Director of the Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

In addition to directing the Dauten Center, Dr. Nierenberg is the co-director of Mass General’s Center for Clinical Research Education and associate director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program. He also holds the Thomas P. Hackett, MD, Endowed Chair in Psychiatry at Mass General.

Dr. Nierenberg graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY. After completing his residency in psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital, he studied clinical epidemiology at Yale University as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Nierenberg then joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School, first at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA and then at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Medicine, Faculty of Health at Deakin University, Geelong, Australia, and an Honorary Skou Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Dr. Nierenberg focuses on clinical trials for bipolar disorder and depression with over 600 published papers. He has been listed among The Best Doctors or Top Doctors in America for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders yearly since 1994. He currently serves as the Vice President of Research for the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD). He has been honored with the ISBD Mogens Schou Award for Research and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation’s Colvin Prize.