Treatments for Depression including medication, natural remedies and psychotherapy.

TREATMENTS FOR DEPRESSION

There are many different treatments available for depression and none are mutually exclusive - all can be used in combination to combat your depression. Depending on the strength and symptoms of your particular depression, and also other personal and social factors unique to your circumstances, some treatments may be more effective that others.

MEDICATION

Medication for depression treatment can generally be split into two groups - prescribed and non-prescribed, or in other words medication available over the counter and medication available only as prescribed by a doctor. Obviously, over-the counter availability of medication varies from country to country and continent to continent. These grouping are based on over-the-counter medication availability in the United Kingdom.

Prescription Medication

Medication recommended and prescribed by a doctor or professional medic. See the drugs info page for more information about prescription drugs.

Non-Prescription Medication

Alternative forms of medication, usually helpful in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. These types of medication would be available in some form or another without a prescription at a local chemist. Some of the medications available are listed below. St. John's wort may cause increased sensitivity to sunlight. Other side effects can include anxiety, dry mouth, dizziness, gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue, headache, or sexual dysfunction.

St John's Wort

St. John's wort is not a proven therapy for depression. There is some scientific evidence that St. John's wort is useful for treating mild to moderate depression. However, two large studies have shown that the herb was no more effective than placebo in treating major depression of moderate severity.

PSYCHOTHERAPY

There are a range of therapeutic approaches utilized for the treatment of depression. These include cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, rational emotive therapy and other family/psychodynamic approaches. Both individual and group help frameworks are commonly used, depending upon the seriousness of the depressive episode, the person's economic situation and the local resources which are available.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

It consists of simple techniques which focus on the negative thought patterns, called cognitive distortions, which the depressed person may habitually use. In cognitive-behavioral therapy, emphasis is placed on discussing the thoughts and the behaviors associated with depression rather than the emotions themselves. The rationale for this is that it is believed that by changing thoughts and behaviors the emotions will also change. Because of this approach, cognitive-behavioral therapy is short-term (usually under two dozen sessions) and works best for people experiencing a quite a bit of distress related to their depression. Individuals who are able to approach a problem from a unique perspective and who are more cognitively-oriented will get positive results with this treatment.

Interpersonal Therapy

Interpersonal therapy is another short-term therapy used in the treatment of depression. The focus of this treatment approach is usually on an individual's social relationships and how to improve them. It is thought that good, stable social support is essential to a person's overall well-being. When relationships are unhealthy, a person suffers from this. This therapy seeks to improve a person's relationship skills, communication skills, expression of emotions, and assertiveness. It is usually conducted on an individual basis but can also be used in a group therapy setting.

Rational Emotive Therapy

Rational-emotive therapy (RET), like most other therapies, has a dual goal: First, to help people overcome their emotional blocks and disturbances; second, to help them become more fully functioning, more self-actualizing, happier than they otherwise would be. RET holds that people are born as well as reared with strong tendencies both to defeat themselves and to ignore their capacity to function more fully and to change their self-destructive thoughts, feelings and behaviors and to achieve fuller functioning. To a large (though not a total) degree, they choose emotional-behavioral disturbance (or health) and choose restricted (or fuller) functioning.

Therefore, to more fully actualize themselves, they had better choose to work at yes, work at achieving more growth, development, and happiness. More specifically, RET holds that people usually make themselves needlessly anxious, depressed, self-hating, and self-pityingly and needlessly dysfunctional when they take their healthy preferences for achievement, approval, and comfort and change them into dogmatic, extreme musts, demands, and commands on themselves, on others, and on the environment. In so doing, they almost always sabotage their self-fulfilling urges and potentials.

By using a number of rational-emotive cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods, the series of irrational and dysfunctional needs and musts damaging the patient can be challenged and nullified. Thus, they can cognitively question and challenge their own absolutist demands and commands, reframe them, convince themselves of rational coping statements, read and listen to RET materials, talk others out of their musts, use problem-solving methods, and otherwise acquire a basic philosophy of tolerance, self-acceptance, and long-range hedonism.

Family / Psychodynamic Approaches

Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic approaches in the treatment of depression have little research to support their use at this time. Although some therapists may make use of psychodynamic theory to help conceptualize an individual's personality, there is much debate as to whether this is an effective treatment for depression.

HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnosis is a natural state where the conscious mind is in a quiet state and the unconscious mind is much more to the fore. In this state a person is able to recall much better and also to feel emotion much more strongly. It is for this reason that hypnosis is so useful for aiding the recall of traumatic of emotional incidents, and in releasing the locked up emotions associated with them.

Hypno-Analysis

Hypno-Analysis is a form of hypnotherapy is gentle and relaxing treatment that can also provide fast and effective results. Firstly, the client is hypnotized to send them into a completely relaxed and comfortable mood. In this state they are able to remember connected events throughout their life until the recollections become more and more focused until eventually a repressed memory, usually from childhood, is recognized and released. These memories, having been deeply buried in the unconscious mind, are often the a significant cause for people's depression. Once identified, the repressed memory can be dealt with and the depression treated and cured.

EXERCISE

Regular exercise can be an effective way to treat some forms of depression. Physical activity alters brain chemistry and leads to feelings of well being. Exercise can also be an effective treatment for anxiety. Some research studies indicate that regular exercise may be as effective as other treatments like medication to relieve mild to moderate depression.

MEDITATION

While meditation is not the main or only cure to solve problems of depression, a lot of people are turning to it to solve their problems. It can be very effective for treating mild forms of depression and also as a pro-active measure to stop depression returning. Meditation can be used as a relaxation technique and to improve mental condition, e.g., to increase self-esteem.

HOSPITALIZATION

A depression treatment that should only considered in extreme cases. In situations where the depression is of such a magnitude as to potentially cause the sufferer to physically damage themselves or others, hospitalization is recommended. If the sufferer's depression is strongly linked to their current life situation - their job, environment, personal relationships - a break from their surroundings in the form of a period of hospitalization, could be an important step in their depression treatment.

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