Mental health articles

Some people who are depressed will need some form of medical or psychological treatment to help them overcome their present condition. The form of treatmentwill follow on from the particular theory of causation of the condition. Most peoplewith reactive depressions (i.e. in relation to a precipitating event) may receive acourse in counselling or some other form of talking therapy (see Chapter 14 in thisbook). In this discursive process, the person will have an opportunity to examinethe events that are making them feel so sad and to put them into perspective. Thetranscript  is an example of one such approach, cognitive behaviouraltherapy (CBT); other approaches may be a more general discursive process basedon a psychodynamic explanation of depression.

People who are more profoundly depressed may, especially if there is no knownprecipitating event, have some form of medical intervention, such as antidepressantmedication or in the most severe cases a form of physical therapy known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This form of therapy, where electricity is passedover part of the brain, helps to lift the mood of the person with depression quitemarkedly; however, it is a form of therapy that is opposed by some users of themental health service and some mental health practitioners because of its side effecton short-term memory loss and the controversy associated with its use.Most people will receive treatment for depression in the form of antidepressantmedication. These are given to improve the mood of the depressed person. Theiraction is upon the neurotransmitters within the brain; too little of these transmittersmay cause depression . The action of these drugs helps blockthe reuptake of these transmitters and, therefore, leaves more of them available.The result may be a lifting of the person’s mood.

All of the above drugs are used to combat low mood and depression. They mayneed up to two weeks of administration before they start working. They need to betaken in the right dosage for between six months and several years.

Tags: depression, treatment