Depending on the diagnosis and the severity of the symptoms of depression, there are several types of treatments that might be recommended by your health care professional. The most common include various types of psychotherapy and anti-depressant medications, or perhaps a combination of these two approaches. For very severe cases of depression, more drastic measures can be employed.

The following is a brief description and explanation of the main options recognised as being effective in the treatment of depression and depressive disorders.

Psychotherapy

This approach is based on developing a trusting, safe and understanding environment for you to talk through your thoughts and feelings with the help of a trained counsellor. By sharing your experiences either on a one to one basis or perhaps in a group therapy session with people in a similar situation or with similar feelings, can allow you the necessary emotional support you need to enable you to cope. This type of treatment lends itself well to mild and moderate types of depression sometimes alongside medication.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Sometimes negative thoughts and ideas or the way you think about things can contribute to feelings of depression. This type of therapy helps you to look at these in detail in order to change the way you think about them, so that you change your behaviour accordingly. By focussing on specific difficulties that are happening in your life now, new ways of coping and dealing with situations can be identified. It is particularly helpful for anxiety related and panic disorders and disorders affecting behaviour, for example, obsessive compulsive disorder and eating disorders, amongst others.

Anti-depressant medication

Persistent depression may require the use of anti-depressants for a period of time. Just like all treatments, they are not an overnight fix and can take anything up to several weeks for the effect of the medication to be felt, and just like all medications they can carry side effects.

There are many kinds of anti-depressants available but the four main types fall into the categories of:

• Tricyclics – including Anafranil • Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors – SSRIs like Prozac • Serotonin and Noradrenaline Reuptake Inhibitors – SNRIs such as Endronax • Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors – for example, Manerix and Nardil

Basically, they are all believed to work by impacting on the activity of the chemicals in the brain responsible for making us "feel good" such as Serotonin and Noradrenaline. The most commonly prescribed anti-depressant drugs today fall into the SSRI category as they appear to have fewer side effects and are considered less dangerous than the others.

Lithium Carbonate has a mood stabilising effect and is sometimes prescribed to people with severe depression; however, it is dangerous if the levels in the blood become too high so constant medical checks and blood tests are a necessity.

Page 1 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next