In the Know

ICYMI: America’s happiest cities; world’s happiest countries; do antidepressants work?

Three top stories from around the web.

There’s a lot happening in medicine and health care. Catch up on some of the top stories you might have missed. Interested in more news about the osteopathic profession? Check out our Newsbriefs.

Happiness is more than a state of mind.

1. These Are America’s Happiest and Healthiest Cities

Researchers found that the U.S. communities with the highest sense of well-being were ones in which residents were enjoying their work and learning new and interesting things every day.

More than 337,000 people across the U.S. were surveyed on strong predictors of overall well-being, which include physical, social, financial and community health. Topping the list were Naples, Florida, and Barnstable, Massachusetts. See if your community made the list. —TIME Health

Crowded Aleksi Street in Helsinki, Finland

2. Want to Really Be Happy? Try Moving to Finland

Even the happiest and healthiest cities in America don’t measure up to the rest of the world. Finland is the happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report 2018, released Wednesday. It’s followed by Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

How did the U.S. rank?  It is 18th of 156 countries surveyed, down four spots from the 2017 report. —NYT Health

3. Do Antidepressants Work?

The efficacy of antidepressants has long been hotly debated. The problem hasn’t been the lack of research but, rather, cases of publication bias where positive studies are likely to be released while negative ones are not, according to the New York Times.

Now, the most comprehensive study to date attempts to overcome these biases. “Comparative efficacy and acceptability of 21 antidepressant drugs for the acute treatment of adults with major depressive disorder: a systematic review and network meta-analysis,” was published in The Lancet last month. The new study found that antidepressants are more effective than placebos, but may offer more modest benefits than other major studies suggest.

Aaron E. Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, shares his insights on the findings. —NYT Health

 

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