How to Treat Clinical Depression?

Dr Alexander Salerno: How to Treat Clinical Depression?

A persistent feeling of despair, sadness or loss of interest in activities is termed as clinical depression or major depression or major depressive disorder. The symptoms can affect day-to-day activities such as work, eating, sleepingand also how a person feelsor thinks or behaves and can cause emotional and physical problems too. Depression should not be put off as something trivial and a one-off mood blues, it cannot just go away, it requires medication as well as long-term treatment but the good news is that full recovery is possible from the disorder.

Depression affects a large part of the population but largely goes unnoticed as noted Dr Alexander Salerno a board certified internist. In fact some studies show as many as 55% of patients in primary care doctors offices exhibit some form of clinical depression, of which nearly all of them go undiagnosed and untreated.

Women are biologically more vulnerable and the factors that increase the risk of depression are balancing family life with work, stress at work and home and caring for children or aging parents, and of course post partum depression that may first manifest within days of delivery but in other instances onset may be delayed by months which further increases the risk of missing this diagnosis.

A variety of factors contribute to mental disorders including clinical depression such as inherited traits which can pass on from generations, traumatic life events, changes in the level and balance of hormones in the body, biological differences observed as physical changes in the brain and balance of neurotransmitters of the brain can also lead to depression. Alexander Salerno MD also states that alcohol and drug consumption, loneliness, giving birth and an illness might also trigger depression. Before we discuss its treatment, let us know about its symptoms.

Symptoms of Clinical Depression: Dr Alexander Salerno

Depression symptoms occur most times of the day, almost every day with symptoms being seen more prominently in the morning.In some people symptoms of depression might be clearly prominent as if something is amiss while in some they might just feel miserable and unhappy without knowing the reason. The most common symptoms of clinical depression include:

·         Loss of interest in normal day-to-day activities

·         Irritability, frustration or angry outbursts on even small matters

·         Feelings of hopelessness, emptiness, sadness and unhappiness

·         Changes in sleep patterns such as excessive sleeping or insomnia

·         Lack of energy and fatigue

·         Unexplained back aches, headaches and muscle aches

·         Difficulty concentrating on tasks, remembering things or taking decisions

·         Suicidal feelings and thoughts

·         Anxiety, restlessness and agitation such as hand wringing, pacing, worrying or difficulty in sitting still

·         Changes in appetite and food intake like loss of appetite and weight loss or increases cravings and weight gain

Depression is also characterised by having specific symptoms such as anxiety distress, atypical features, melancholic features, peripartum onset, psychotic features or seasonal pattern.

Treating Clinical Depression

According to Dr Alexander Salerno, the primary and best treatment for mental disorders including depression is a combination of psychological counselling or psychotherapy and medication. Medication relieves symptoms whereas counselling helps find the cause and aid in recovering.

Medications include antidepressants such as tricyclic antidepressants, reuptake inhibitors -dopamine and norepinephrine, and others, atypical antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors along with other mood stabilisers and antipsychotics. For severe cases electroconvulsive therapy is recommended.

Psychotherapy involves talking about the disorder and related issues with a qualified therapist such as finding ways to cope with the problems and solving it, identifying negative thoughts and behaviours and substituting it with positive ones, regaining control over depressive feelings and emotions.

Support groups also help fight the disorder as well as introduction of healthy lifestyle patterns.

Behavioral illnesses are serious conditions no more or less so than diabetes, asthma, or heart disease. Like the aforementioned conditions, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, when go untreated negatively impact the life of the patient and the overall health standing of our community at large. We must rid the taboo or stigma applied to the mental health patient  if we are to be considered a modern innovative society.  Because in our current state of affairs, our 21st century culture bares  an unkindly resemblance to Charles Dicken's 19th century novel "A Tale of Two Cities" when it comes to the treatment and care provided to  this historically discriminated population.  As the opening caption goes:

" it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of dispair."

It is time that we make a commitment to this segment of the population to assure that only light, hope, and social equality prevails.