The release of the fast-acting antidepressant of Woolity got us thinking about an order

strategy to speed up antidepressants, benzodiazepines. So we're bringing you this Thursday throwback

do benzodiazepines treat depression? Benzos and sleep meds rarely earn a mention in textbooks

on depression these days.

But that has not always been the case.

Today, in part one of a two-part series, we'll open up a forgotten repository of psychiatric research, where a stack of about 50 controlled trials has been archived away,

suggesting that the gabaergic benzos might actually treat depression.

Welcome to the Carlat Psychiatry Podcast, keeping psychiatry honest since 2003.

I'm Chrisaken, the editor-in-chief of the Carlat Psychiatry Report.

And I'm Kelly Newsome, a psychiatric MP and a dedicated reader of every issue.

Stay tuned to the very end of this episode, where we'll update it with some new research.

Nothing is more tormenting to a melancholic than to lie awake for several hours in the early

morning, alone with his morbid thoughts and his intense desire for the peace of sleep. Judicious

prescription of the proper dosage of the right drug is most rewarding to such a patient.

That was from Frank Ide's 1961 textbook recognizing the depressed patient.

And the right drug he was talking about was the barbiturates.

Soon after the book's release,

barbiturates were replaced with benzodiazepines,

and the benzos were later supplanted by the Z-hypnotics, at least for sleep.

That sounds like progress, but really we aren't too far from Dr. Ide's world. All of these

drugs are gaba-urgic, and their main difference is in safety, not efficacy. In fact, the older

versions are arguably more potent than the newer gaberogics we use today,

...