Talk therapy may be a helpful supplemental treatment for people with depression who have not responded to medication, a new study from the United Kingdom suggests. Researchers found that people with depression who had not improved despite taking antidepressants were three times more likely to experience a reduction in their depression symptoms if talk therapy was added to their treatment regimen compared with those who continued to take only antidepressants. The study is one of the first large trials to test the effectiveness of talk therapy given in tandem with antidepressants, the researchers said. Up to two-thirds of people with depression don’t respond fully to antidepressant treatment, and the findings suggest a way to help this group, the researchers said. “Until now, there was little evidence to help clinicians choose the best next step treatment for those patients whose symptoms do not respond to standard drug treatments," study researcher Nicola Wiles of the University of Bristol's Centre for Mental Health, Addiction and Suicide Research said in a statement. The study followed patients for one year. Future studies should examine the effectiveness of this treatment combination over the long term, as patients with depression can relapse after treatment, the researchers said. In addition, because some patients did not improve substantially when talk therapy was added, further research is needed to find alternative treatments for this group, Wiles added. The study included about 470 people with depression who had not responded to antidepressants after six weeks of treatment. About half received cognitive behavioral therapy — a type of talk therapy — in addition to their usual antidepressant treatment, and half continued antidepressants without the addition of talk therapy. After six months, about 46 percent of patients in the talk therapy group experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in their depressive symptoms. By contrast, 22 percent of people in the antidepressant group improved by the same amount. By the 12-month mark, both groups experienced similar rates of improvement. Often, talk therapy is more difficult to access than medication, the researchers said. And people may not be able to afford the treatment if their health insurance does not cover it. Only about 25 percent of Americans with depression have received talk therapy during the past year, they said. Pass it on: People with depression who have not responded to antidepressants may benefit from the addition of talk therapy.

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Arctic Wildfire Soot Darkening Greenland Ice Sheet

The glittering, icy landscape of Greenland is being marred by soot that falls from the smoke plumes of Arctic wildfires, new satellite-based research shows. That soot darkens the surface of the ice and makes it absorb more sunlight, hastening its melt. Researchers caught what they say are the first direct images of wildfire smoke drifting over Greenland this past summer with NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite, which they presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Rising global temperatures are already contributing to the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which experienced record melt this year and its warmest summer in 170 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Arctic Report Card. Other research presented at the meeting reported that Greenland's ice loss is accelerating by 22 gigatons (22 cubic kilometers) of ice a year, with some areas, particularly the edges, losing ice faster than others. Because meltwater is less reflective than ice, the surface of the ice sheet is already absorbing more sunlight — previous research found that the reflectivity of the Greenland ice has dropped by 6 percent in the last decade, according to an Ohio State University release on the new research. This summer, in fact, virtually the entire surface veneer of the Greenland ice sheet melted in a matter of days, something that Ohio State researcher Jason Box, who worked on the CALIPSO research, says could start happening every summer. Now, adding to the darkening of the surface that comes with more meltwater is the soot from Arctic tundra wildfires, another phenomenon that seems to be increasing with global warming. As these wildfires rage, atmospheric currents carry their smoke plumes over other areas, including Greenland, as the CALIPSO images show. The soot drops out from these plumes and darkens the ice sheet, exacerbating the feedback cycle of melting. Box and his colleagues investigated the impact of these wildfires on Greenland by first using thermal images from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to find the tundra fires. Computer models were used to project where the smoke from the fires would go, and they suggested that it could, in fact, reach Greenland. Armed with that information, the team looked at CALIPSO data and found evidence of the smoke over Greenland. Just how much the soot from this smoke is impacting Greenland's melting can't be gleaned from the satellite data, though. To figure this out will take direct sampling of the ice sheet; Box is already organizing an expedition, dubbed The Dark Snow Project, for 2013, to the ice sheet to get these samples.

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Why Fair Trade May Be Unfair to Shoppers

Holiday shoppers beware: Products labeled as being socially responsible are not always what they appear. In fact, often companies purposely mislead consumers about their products, one consumer expert says. Many companies recognize consumers’ increasing desire to by socially conscious products and are using it to their benefit, said Keith Brown, a sociologist at Saint Joseph's University. "Retailers are doing things like creating more conspicuous labels that allow consumers to show off their status as socially conscious," said Brown, who is the author of "Buying Into Fair Trade: Culture, Morality and Consumption" (NYU Press, March 2013). “It is important for consumers to remember that advertisers’ claims of sustainability do not always align with their actual practices." Brown warns consumers to be extra vigilant this holiday season, particularly since companies are looking to maximize sales around the holidays. "I think the spirit of the holidays encourages shoppers to think more critically about a lot of their gifts," Brown said. "Many are turning to socially responsible products that are produced in sustainable ways or that have economic, social and environmental benefits for producers. In this respect, it’s a double gift." One way for consumers to ensure they are not getting fooled by products and companies is to look for certifications and awards on products they buy. "Third-party certifications such as fair trade, organic and rainforest alliance provide some baseline assurances that companies are meeting their claims," said Brown. Consumers, however, can be particularly puzzling when it comes to their purchases, which can be challenging for retailers looking to reach them. "Even responsible shoppers often buy products that do not align with their values," Brown said. "Some consumers willfully ignore where many of their products are coming from. Others rationalize by, say, shopping at Target as opposed to Walmart, when really there's not a vast difference in things like benefits and pay of entry-level workers, for instance."

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oday's Japan Earthquake Could Be 2011 Quake Aftershock

Was the 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck today (Dec. 7) east of Sendai, Japan, in any way related to last year's enormous, 9.0 earthquake? It's too early to tell definitively, said U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geophysicist Jessica Turner, but the quake did happen in the "aftershock zone" of the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake. This zone is an area on the ocean floor that the 2011 quake physically moved and where more than 5,000 aftershocks have been recorded, according to the USGS. Scientists say it's quite possible for aftershocks to arrive so late. "It's very normal to have aftershocks more than a year later," Turner told OurAmazingPlanet. It's debatable how long aftershocks can occur following earthquakes, however. But last year's monster temblor released so much energy that it wouldn't be surprising if the Earth is still adjusting, Turner said. In general, such adjustments cause aftershocks, as the earth attempts to "get back to normal," Turner said. "It's going to take a long time for the Earth to get back to the background level of seismicity after last year's event," she said. The March 2011 quake and subsequent tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and caused a nuclear crisis when the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant was destroyed, leaking radiation into the atmosphere and the ocean. [In Pictures: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami] Today's earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, was caused by reversing faulting, in which the Pacific Plate subducts, or moves underneath the Eurasian plate, Turner said. The plate-boundary region surrounding the site of today's quake hosts moderate to large earthquakes fairly regularly. Over the past 40 years, 12 earthquakes of magnitude-7.0 or greater have occurred within 155 miles (250 kilometers) of the site, according to the USGS. The temblor's epicenter was 152 miles (245 km) southeast of Kamaishi, Japan. It originated 22.4 miles (36.1 km) below the Earth's surface and struck at 5:18 p.m. local time (3:18 a.m. ET). The powerful quake shook buildings as far away as Tokyo and triggered a 3.3-foot (1-meter) tsunami in an area devastated by last year's Fukushima disaster, according to news reports. (If you felt any shaking from the earthquake, you can tell the USGS here.) Fortunately, today's earthquake hasn't caused any major injuries or destruction, Turner said.

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