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Severe Depression Treatments

People who suffer from depression sometimes try to dismiss it as just a case of the blues. In truth, depression is a serious condition that requires professional treatment in order to resolve it. If left untreated, severe depression can spiral out of control, affecting every corner of your life and (in the worst cases) lead to suicide attempts. Depression doesn't go away overnight, but with steady work and a firm commitment to the treatment options, the prognosis is usually very good.

  1. Psychotherapy

    • Therapy remains the primary weapon for dealing with severe depression. The patient speaks to a trained counselor in private sessions, attempting to uncover the causes of his feelings and healing the wounds they left behind. Therapy also entails new coping mechanisms: training you to notice when unhappy emotions grab you and learning positive methods to address them. When dealing with severe depression, you may wish to consider frequent therapy sessions--perhaps several times a week. Make sure whomever you speak to is a licensed professional and has experience dealing with severe forms of depression. You should also ask what kind of therapy he practices: cognitive behavior therapy is common for treating severe depression, but hypnotherapy, psychodynamic therapy and interpersonal therapy may work as well.

    Medication

    • Medication doesn't actually cure depression, but it does provide some respite from the deep wells of despair that the condition often creates. In cases of severe depression, medication is often necessary to help stabilize the patient's mood, allowing other forms of treatment to do their job. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic recommend SSRI antidepressants in many cases (SSRIs regulate the amounts of serotonin in people's brains). More severe instances of depression may require tricyclic antidepressants or MAOIs, both of which work but entail more side effects than SSRIs.

    Electroconvulsive Therapy

    • Doctors turn to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) only when the patient hasn't responded to other types of treatment and the depression is serious enough to threaten his health. In some cases, it may be applied to patients who can't take medication because of other health conditions. ECT works by inducing a seizure via electrical currents sent into the brain. No one is certain how exactly it works, but it can relieve the symptoms of serious depression very quickly. Side effects include confusion and short-term memory loss, and patients need to be monitored closely during and after the procedure.

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