00:00Yeah, this study was done by the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre.
00:06And they found those with something called atypical depression were less likely to find
00:11antidepressants effective.
00:13And atypical depression differs a little bit because it is normally characterised by overeating
00:20and oversleeping.
00:22This is different to the more common types of depression, which involve more insomnia
00:27and loss of appetite.
00:29Atypical depression is also more common in women and night hours, so people who go to
00:34bed later or wake up later and just get less sunlight exposure.
00:39There's also an association with metabolic dysfunction, so this group might be overweight or at more
00:45risk of diabetes.
00:47And how effective or how less effective are the antidepressants for this group?
00:52So the study looked at 15,000 Australians and it just focused on the really common antidepressants
00:58that target the neurotransmitters in the brain.
01:01And it found 3,000 of those people were 12% to 15% less likely to find the antidepressants useful.
01:08Here's Ian Hickey, the co-director of the Brain and Mind Centre, talking about the findings.
01:14Ian Hickey is about one in five of people who are commonly taking these antidepressants for
01:19severe or persistent depression have this atypical type and respond poorly.
01:24That seems to be driven by different genetics, different metabolism and fundamentally a different
01:30mechanism for their depression compared with the more common forms.
01:33It seems that our body clocks also have strong genetic factors and some people are just not able
01:39to set that clock well. And when it's disturbed, they're more likely to develop this type of
01:44depression. They're more at risk.
01:45Another thing this study found was that this group are more likely to experience the side effects of
01:51antidepressants, which include fatigue and weight gain.
01:55Really interesting study. Does it look at which treatments might be better for people with this
02:00type of depression?
02:01Yes. So the researchers believe alternate treatments that look more at the physical
02:07health of these patients might be more suitable. So that could include therapies that aim to restore
02:14proper wake sleep cycles. So that could be bright light therapy or melatonin supplements. But there needs to
02:21be more research on these to actually see if they would be more appropriate than antidepressants for this
02:27group. But overall, the researchers say this is a bit of a wake up call, especially for clinicians who
02:33can't treat every case of depression in the same way. They need to be more aware of this atypical
02:39group and try to look for more personalised treatments.
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