Patient Education Resource on Add-on Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder
Major depressive disorder (MDD) can be difficult to treat. Many patients may not respond to the first antidepressant they try, or they might have side effects that require them to stop taking the medication. Finding an appropriate treatment plan is important for helping depressive symptoms.
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NP Spotlights
NP Spotlight: Chris Lambert
A career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner can be replete with challenges and opportunities. The NP Psych Navigator Spotlight is your chance to learn more about nurse practitioners who are working to advance the profession and mental health in general. In this installment of this series, we profile Chris Lambert, FNP-C, DNP.

Psychiatric Scales
Antidepressant Treatment Response Questionnaire (ATRQ)
The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Antidepressant Treatment Response Questionnaire (ATRQ) is a scale used to assess treatment response or nonresponse to adequate treatment trials among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).1 The ATRQ examines the adequacy of duration and dose of prior and current antidepressant treatment trials.2 The ATRQ also assesses the degree of improvement in depressive symptoms in the most efficacious trial or in all trials during the current episode.2 The utility of this scale is in allowing a patient-report tool to take the place of a potentially lengthy clinician interview in assessing past antidepressant treatment adequacy and efficacy.1

Psychiatric Scales
Clinically Useful Depression Outcome Scale (CUDOS)
The Clinically Useful Depression Outcome Scale (CUDOS) is a brief, quickly scored, self-report scale used to assess depressive symptoms over the past 1 week. CUDOS is reliable, valid, and sensitive to change.1 The CUDOS consists of 18 questions. The first 16 are scored from 0 to 4 for frequency of symptoms over the past week. The final 2 questions cover the impact of these symptoms on the respondent’s life and their overall quality of life in the past week.2

Psychiatric Scales
RMS (Rapid Mood Screener) Tool
The Rapid Mood Screener (RMS) is a novel, pragmatic, patient-reported tool to assess patients for bipolar I disorder.1 The RMS is a screening tool that was developed to help differentiate bipolar I disorder from major depressive disorder (MDD) in patients with depressive symptoms who have been diagnosed with MDD.1