In This Issue

Alarcón et al. (p. 506) highlight the importance of immigration and culture in the case of a depressed young man from Colombia, who searched for help from a number of professionals, including a traditional healer and a non-Latino psychiatrist, and then found support from a group of Latino young adults discussing “what it means to be a Latino in the U.S.” The authors suggest the use of the Cultural Formulation Interview in DSM-5 to elicit information about how patients’ cultural background may have influenced their understanding of their illness and the presenting symptoms, such as somatization. Ethnic background is also a consideration in pharmacologic treatment, as CYP-450 genotype can influence drug response and side effects. Fairburn and Patel (p. 495) suggest possible remedies for the global shortage of psychological treatments. Options for increasing the number of therapists include Internet-based training and training of less-qualified people. Expanding treatment on the scale needed, however, may require creation of widely available Internet self-help programs.

Brain imaging in both early and mid adolescence revealed that adolescents who developed depression during the intervening period had less growth of the hippocampus and less reduction in putamen volume than nondepressed adolescents. Whittle et al. (CME, p. 564) found a sex-related difference in the amygdala: attenuated growth in depressed boys and exaggerated growth in depressed girls. In an editorial, Luby (p. 489) applauds the use of longitudinal data to explore neurodevelopment in depression, as has been done in ADHD, autism, and schizophrenia.