Health care providers treat clinical depression
A physician has also received 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 assist these other professionals.
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.
Emotional and social support
Depression 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.
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.
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 is cognitive behavioral therapy.
Extensive research and medical studies have been conducted to assess it's safety and effectiveness.
Cognitive Behavioral 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 (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 the day. This is conducted to understand how often and common these
kind of thoughts are occuring.
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. Cognitive-behavioral
therapy is often short-term (generally from 2 to 12 sessions).
Interpersonal Therapy
Interpersonal therapy is also used on a short-term basis for treating depression.
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, he or she needs to have a stable and good social support.
When relationships become unhealthy, problems develop. This
therapeutic approach seeks to enrich one's skills in social relationships, expression of his or her emotions,
assertiveness, and communication skills. It is usually conducted 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 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.
The goal is to seek 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.
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.
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