The Conversation

Antidepressants are one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. While they can be very effective at treating mental health disorders, they can also cause a range of physical side-effects — including weight gain, blood pressure changes and altered heart rate.

But a recent paper has shown that physical side-effects can vary significantly between different types of antidepressants. For example, this means someone could gain 2kg on one type of antidepressant, but could lose 2.5kg when taking a different type. The author of the study explains what you need to know.

The Ravensbrück archive was one of the earliest attempts in the world to systematically document the crimes of the Nazi regime, gathering more than 500 interviews with concentration camp survivors. In our latest Insights long read, historian Håkan Håkansson tells the story of how the archive came to be, and how it was nearly lost.

Milk is one of the world’s most familiar beverages and yet its identity is far more complicated than once thought. We dive into the politics of milk, exploring how deep the cultural, historical and emotional attachments to this fridge staple go.

Heather Kroeker

Commissioning Editor, Health + Medicine

Not all antidepressants are the same when it comes to their physical side-effects. Kmpzzz/ Shutterstock

Antidepressants: physical side-effects vary depending on the drug type – new research

Toby Pillinger, King's College London

Our study showed that some antidepressants have greater effects on weight, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugar than others do.

Helena Dziedzicka’s notes and pass from the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials, with a still photo of the accused. Lund University Library

‘I have it in my blood and brain … I still haven’t been able to shake this nightmare off.’ How voices from a forgotten archive of Nazi horrors are reshaping perceptions of the Holocaust

Håkan Håkansson, Lund University

The Ravensbrück archive reveals how being a survivor of the camps did not always entail innocence.

Maryna Kostiuk / Shutterstock

The politics of milk: how a simple drink got caught up in power, culture and identity

JC Niala, University of Oxford; Johanna Zetterström-Sharp, UCL

Milk is never just milk. It’s saturated with meaning, emotion and contradiction, and provokes strong responses in people.

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