Treating Depression
Health care providers can take care of depressed people. A
physician, for one, has also training in treating psychiatric
disorders. The same goes with the physician assistant and the
nurse practitioner. If the case is severe, these health care
providers will automatically refer the patient to mental health
specialists.
The mental health specialists are composed of the following:
psychiatrist, psychologist, a psychiatric nurse specialist and
even a social worker.
The psychiatrist offers treatment and diagnosis for mental and
psychiatric patients. A psychologist, on the other hand, is
trained for counseling, psychological examination and
psychotherapy. The social worker knows counseling to a certain
degree, whereas a registered nurse who has taken masterals in
psychiatric nursing can help out the patient.
Before the diagnosis can be made, the health care providers or
mental health specialists will ask the patient on the following:
symptoms, overall health and medical and mental history of the
family. A physical exam will be carried out as well as some lab
tests.
Depression, being an illness, requires tremendous emotional
support from the family. A family member must accompany the
patient on doctor visits to give the latter a boost.
During the course of the visit, the doctor will figure out if
the case is severe, mild or moderate. Depression is severe if
the person experiences all the symptoms and if it keeps him from
doing all his daily activities. Moderate, if the person has a
lot of the symptoms that it hampers his activities. It can be
categorized mild if the person has some of the depression
symptoms and if he needs more push to do all the things he needs
to do.
No one must underestimate depression. It is a real illness, and
therefore the patient needs all the help and attention he can
get.
As said earlier, you are not alone in this problem. Fortunately,
depression, of all psychiatric illnesses, proves to be one of
the most treatable. With proper care, more than 80 percent of
those suffering from major depression experience significant
improvement. Even those suffering from severe depression can
helped. Here are some treatments for depression problems:
Psychotherapy There are many types and methods of therapeutic
approaches used for treating depression. The most common types
are behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, rational
emotive therapy, and interpersonal therapy. Approaches also
include psychodynamic and family approaches. Both the individual
as well as group modalities have been used commonly, but these
depend on the severity of one's depression, the financial
resources of the person, and resources that are available
locally.
Arguably the most prominent therapy in treating depression, the
cognitive behavioral therapy is commonly used for handling the
condition. There has been extensive research and medical studies
that conducted to check or assess the safety as well as the
effectiveness in treating depression using this type of therapy.
Considered the father of cognitive behavioral therapy, many
written studies and books support this type of therapy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy uses simple techniques that focus
primarily on the patient's negative thought patterns. These
negative thought patterns are also known as cognitive
distortions. A person suffering from depression may from time to
time use these cognitive distortions, igniting the condition.
The therapy starts with the establishment of a supportive and
warm environment for one suffering from depression. Making the
patient learn about how his or her depression problem may be a
result of thinking in cognitive distortions is generally the
next step. The types of faulty logic and thinking are also
discussed in this step (such as "everything or nothing logic,"
"blame mis-attribution," "overgeneralization," among others) and
the person being treated is encouraged to start taking notes of
the thoughts he or she has been having as they happen throughout
his or her day. This is conducted for the person to understand
and realize how often and common this kind of thoughts are
occuring.
In this type of therapy, the emphasis is mainly placed on
realizing the thoughts as well as the behaviors that are
associated with the depression problem rather than on the
emotions themselves. The rationale for this emphasis is that is
strongly believed that by altering one's thoughts and
consequently, behaviors, his or her emotions will most likely
change as well. Because of this type of therapy,
cognitive-behavioral therapy is often short-term (generally
lasts up to a dozen sessions or two only) and best suits people
that are experiencing some kind of distress that is related to
the depression they are having. Individuals that are able to
handle a problem using a perspective that is unique and
therefore are most likely cognitively-oriented could also do
well under this approach.
Interpersonal therapy, on the other hand, is also a therapy on a
short-term basis used for treating depression. In this type of
treatment, the focus usually lies on the social relationships of
the patient and determine ways in improving these relationships.
It is strongly believed that in order to improve the overall
well-being of a person (or the patient in the case); he or she
needs to have a stable and good social support.
When a person's relationships become unhealthy, the person would
most likely suffer from this problem. This therapy approach then
seeks to enrich one's skills in social relationships, expression
of his or her emotions, assertiveness, and communication skills.
This type of approach is usually done individually but sometimes
can be used also in a setting for group therapy.
Many individual approaches would place importance more on the
patient's active personal involvement in recovering from
depression. Persons being treated under an individual approach
are usually enticed and encouraged to finish homework
assignments between sessions. If the person is not capable yet
to join in therapy sessions actively, then his or her therapist
could be the one to first provide the patient an environment
that supports him or her until the medication starts to help
improve his or her state of feelings and mind.
Psychodynamic or psychoanalytic approaches in treating
depression currently do not have much research to recommend
their use. Although there are some therapists that might use
psychodynamic theory in helping conceptualize a patient's
personality, there are some issues raised on how this could
prove to be an effective and efficient depression treatment.
Couples or family therapy could also be considered if the
depression of the patient directly affects family relationships.
These types of therapy focus on the interpersonal relationships
among family members. In addition, these approaches seek to
ensure good communication in the family. The roles of the family
members in a patient's depression could be examined. Education
about the depression problem in general might also be used as
part of the family therapy.
Medication The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved
numerous medications for treating depression. These drugs have
been sorted into classes; each medication has a unique chemical
structure which acts on various chemicals present in the brain.
It is necessary to remember that all medications approved by the
DFA to treat depression are effective and recommended - they
just do not work the same effect for everybody.
You might want to closely work with the doctor in determining
which drug is the best for your condition. Sometimes, conditions
may involve having more than just one medication; some work with
a mixture of medications. This is important: Do not change your
medication or discontinue your dosage without asking your
doctor.