Depression Treatment

Answer 1

Depression is one of the most common psychological problems and can be life threatening and dangerous for the depressed person and their loved ones.Depression is caused by an imbalance of the chemicals in the brain. Depression can interfere with the every day lives of those that are diagnosed with it. It can cause problems at work, home, and in each and every relationship. There are a variety of treatments available today for depression.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy can assist the depressed in many ways. There is often a blended approach with a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy and interpersonal therapy.Counseling helps the depressed person deal with emotional and mental issues that cause depression. People can become too critical of themselves and doubting their self worth. Most types of counseling will teach the depressed person to refrain from negative thinking that can in some ways harm them or others. Counseling will also allow you and your counselor to get to the root and the cause of the depression to better treat it, and prevent future bouts of depression. A few of the areas that will be touched on when in depression treatment are learning healthy boundaries, relationships and learning a new and better way to deal with life’s problems. Learning how to cope with everyday life can be a huge benefit when dealing with depression.

Medications

Medication is one of the most advertised treatments for depression. Medications improve the symptoms of depression by increasing the neurotransmitters in the brain, and bringing the chemical balance back to normal. Most medications for depression are called anti-depressants. With the overwhelming amount of anti-depressants on the market today, it is best to speak with your counselor prior to taking any. There are many anti-depressants that have mild to moderate side effects. Here are some of the most common anti-depressants on the market; Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Wellbutrin and Celexa. When starting an anti-depressant regimen, it typically takes 4-5 weeks for the medication to get in your blood stream and begin seeing results.

Answer 2

The treatment for depression depends on the cause. Situational depression, such as grief over death or divorce, often responds to talk therapy. If it is clinical depression, then it has medical causes and a medication is needed to correct a chemical imbalance. Patients should tell their doctors about depression symptoms and get tested for medical reasons for the problem. Depression can be a symptom of the rare Addison's disease or the more common hypothyroidism.

Answer 3

If an individual has maintained feelings of guilt, intolerable sadness or worthlessness for over two weeks, he or she may suffer from major depressive disorder. Symptoms may include a loss in powers of concentration, fatigue, substantial weight loss or gain and insomnia.

In this extreme state of depression, individuals may demonstrate strong changes in their normal behavior patterns while reflecting high levels of stress. Psychotic depression is a form of MDD that has been described as a false sense of reality wrongly believed by an individual and sometimes leading to delusions and hallucinations. In extreme cases, some individuals may exhibit thoughts of suicide.

There are several theories explaining the causes of depression. Some of them deal with neuropsychological explanations of brain or muscle chemistry. There are also theories emphasizing environmental stressors and others concentrating on the influence of negative cognitive patterns.

In the United States, symptoms of depression have mainly been treated with medication. These treatments are based on theories that suggest chemical neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin are active in brain chemistry and affect behavior patterns. Medications that have been used to control or inhibit the flow of these neurotransmitters include Prozac, Celexal and bupropion.

MDD may mainly indicate evidence of the distressful nature of individual's state of mind. This distress may lead to a breakdown of internal cognitive structures normally used by individuals to cope with the problems of daily living. These structures, identified as schema by cognitive psychologists, may become obscured by false beliefs that result in behavior patterns of aggression and anger.

Psychotherapy is a form of depression treatment that attempts to help individuals change their negative thought patterns. It may be used alone or in combination with medication.

Another useful form of depression treatment is electroconvulsive therapy. After they are anesthetized, ECT patients are subjected to small shocks of electric current administered through electrodes planted in the brain.

The National Institute of Mental Health has identified MDD as a major cause of disability affecting youth, adults and seniors. Individuals who are depressed must be seen as having a chronic illness that requires treatment before it becomes extreme or leads to other medical maladies.

Answer 4

In the past, people suffering from depression had limited treatment options. In part, this was due to the lack of medical and psychiatric knowledge about the subject, but also due to the lack of affordable treatment options. Unfortunately, previous depression treatments involved electroshock therapy, in which depressed patients were hooked up to machines that delivered increasingly higher levels of electric shock. These methods were thought to work by giving such intense shock to the body that any psychiatric issues would spontaneously resolve themselves. Another draconian treatment was to perform a transorbital lobotomy on depressed patients, which involved severing the two hemispheres of the brain in order to create a more stable patient.

Fortunately, today, modern psychiatrists and physicians have many medicinal options that can treat depression in much more humane ways. The majority of these treatments involve the ingestion of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. These medicines work by blocking the brain from reabsorbing the neurotransmitter serotonin, allowing for more of it to remain in the body. These drugs help to balance out serotonin in those with deficiencies, which is often thought to be the cause of clinical depression.

Therapy is another option for those with depression that do not wish to seek out medicinal treatment. Therapeutic options, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, allow depressed individuals to change their pattern of thinking, thereby allowing them to change the way they handle their thoughts and emotions. Depressed individuals that seek therapy are encouraged to continue to do so on a long-term basis, as experts suggest that this is the best way to resolve depressive issues. Therapy may be delivered through a licensed counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist.

If you or someone you know if suffering from depression, it's important to remember that you are not alone. There are millions of people across the world that suffer from depression on a daily basis, and it's important to keep in mind that there are many treatment options available. If you're concerned that you're suffering from depression, whether clinical or acute, you need to speak to your primary care physician as soon as possible. Don't allow yourself to suffer another day; seek help now.