5 Things You Need to Know About Depression Treatment

1. Depression Is Biological

For centuries people with depression were blamed for their blues. "Just snap out of it," "What do you have to be sad about?" and "What's wrong with you?" are just a few of the frustrating and hurtful things the depressed have heard from their friends, coworkers and even family members. Recent research, though, has shown chemical imbalances in the brain to be an important and controlling part of the disease. Because of this, most treatment seeks to treat the biological as well as the mental bases of depression.

2. Manage Your Brain Chemicals With Meds

Doctors can prescribe a number of medications to help treat your depression. Although each class of drugs works differently, they all bring the neurotransmitters in your nervous system back into balance, which helps stabilize your mood. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most popular due to their cheap cost and low side effects. Tricyclic medications and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) have been around longer than SSRIs, but are usually prescribed as a last resort, since both carry the risk of potentially lethal side effects and food interactions.

3. Think Happy Thoughts With Psychotherapy

A critical part of any depression treatment plan is psychotherapy, more commonly referred to as "talk therapy." It's easy to be skeptical about the benefits of talking to a shrink. Psychotherapy, however, has been proven time and time again to be extremely effective in helping depressed patients evaluate and overhaul the ways they think and feel. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the most common kind and focuses on changing the patient's negative thought patterns into more positive ones. Interpersonal and psychodynamic therapies are less common, but they are still extremely helpful in treating depression, depending on the causes of the patient's symptoms.

4. Explore the Mystery of Electroconvulsive Therapy

When patients are severely depressed and unable to safely take antidepressant medications, they're occasionally treated with electroconvulsive therapy. ECT passes an electrical current through the brain and induces a seizure that immediately alleviates the symptoms of depression. Doctors aren't sure how the treatment works, but it's generally safe and provides life-saving relief for those patients who are extremely depressed and suicidal.

5. Treating Anxiety Helps With Depression

Doctors often prescribe SSRIs to patients suffering from anxiety disorders, as well as depression. The increased levels of serotonin in your nervous system create an emotional buffer that keeps you from feeling stressed and helps you out of deep depression. Since clinical depression is often preceded and aggravated by some form of anxiety, this coincidence throws a kind of therapeutic one-two punch that often works wonders for many patients.