Raising questions about antidepressants

Antidepressant medication has apparently become the most popular treatment for depression in the USA. Several beliefs about the efficacy of antidepressant medications prevail among mental health professionals and the public. This paper explores relevant research data and raises questions about these beliefs. Many of the common beliefs about these medications are not adequately supported by scientific data. The following issues are raised: (1) industry-funded research studies which result in negative findings sometimes do not get published; (2) placebo washout procedures may bias results in some studies; (3) there are serious questions about the integrity of the double-blind procedure; (4) the 'true' antidepressant drug effect in adults appears to be relatively small; (5) there is minimal evidence of antidepressant efficacy in children; (6) side effects are fairly common even with the newer antidepressants; (7) combining medications raises the risk for more serious complications; (8) all antidepressants can cause withdrawal symptoms; (9) genetic influences on unipolar depression appear to be weaker than environmental influences; (10) biochemical theories of depression are as yet unproven; (11) biological markers specific for depression have been elusive; (12) dosage and plasma levels of antidepressants have been minimally related to treatment outcome; (13) preliminary evidence suggests that patients who improve with cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy show similar biological changes as those who respond to medication, and (14) the evidence suggests that psychological interventions are at least as effective as pharmacotherapy in treating depression, even if severe, especially when patient-rated measures are used and long-term follow-up is considered.     

Mechanical Properties of Highly Deformable Elastomeric Gyroids for Multifunctional Capacitors

Triply periodic minimal surface lattices have mechanical properties that derive from the unit cell geometry and the base material. Through computation software like nTopology and Abaqus, these geometries are used to tune nonlinear stress–strain curves not readily achievable with solid materials alone and to change the compliance by two orders of magnitude compared to the constituent material. In this study, four elastomeric TPMS gyroids undergo large deformation compression and tension testing to investigate the impact of the structure's geometry on the mechanical properties. Among all the samples, the modulus at strain ε$=0.05$ varies by over one order of magnitude (7.7–293.4 kPa from FEA under compression). These lattices are promising candidates for designing multifunctional systems that can perform multiple tasks simultaneously by leveraging the geometry's large surface area to volume ratio. For example, the architectural functionality of the lattice to bear loads and store mechanical energy along with the larger surface area for energy storage is combined. A compliant double-gyroid capacitor that can simultaneously achieve three functions is demonstrated: load bearing, energy storage, and sensing.     

A Low-Temperature Batch Process for the Deposition of High-Quality Conformal Alumina Thin Films for Electronic Applications

High-quality, alumina thin films are extensively used as dielectrics, passivation layers, and barrier layers in electronics and many other applications. However, to achieve optimum stoichiometry and thus performance, the layers are often grown at elevated temperatures (>200 °C) using techniques such as atomic layer deposition (ALD). This is problematic for substrates or structures with low thermal budgets. Herein, alumina thin films are grown on 200 mm silicon substrates employing a versatile deposition method known as MVD at low deposition temperatures (35–150 °C). The chemical composition of the resulting films is investigated postdeposition using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, with fully stoichiometric Al₂O₃ achieved at deposition temperatures as low as 100 °C. Dielectric measurements confirm outstanding dielectric properties compared to typical thermal ALD layers deposited at much higher temperatures. This low-temperature deposition performance by considering the MVD reactor design and the “pump-type” regime of precursor delivery versus the “flow-type” regime of ALD is rationalized and understood. The results clearly demonstrate that alumina thin films grown with MVD are highly versatile for electronic applications and are of particular relevance and interest for the high-volume processing of dielectric, passivation, and barrier layers at low temperatures.