Having a ‘regular’ depressive disorder is already a burden; the weight becomes heavier when the depression is resistant to treatment. This is the situation millions of people are experiencing all over the world. Maybe you are one of them.
Would you like to know how to deal with
treatment-resistant depression, which has failed to response to proper
therapies? Is your case chronic, and has dragged on for two years, despite
taking medication properly? Keep reading this article; it may help you.
Drug Treatment
The first attempt to fight treatment resistant depression is often a combination of two antidepressants in order to increase the therapeutic effects of the drugs. Your physician can combine antidepressants with other psychotropic medications (mood stabilizers, antipsychotics ...) or non-psychotropic (thyroid hormones, anti-inflammatory) depending on the characteristics of the symptoms you are experiencing.
The first attempt to fight treatment resistant depression is often a combination of two antidepressants in order to increase the therapeutic effects of the drugs. Your physician can combine antidepressants with other psychotropic medications (mood stabilizers, antipsychotics ...) or non-psychotropic (thyroid hormones, anti-inflammatory) depending on the characteristics of the symptoms you are experiencing.
Psychotherapy can be crucial in these cases.
Along with it, here are some alternative therapies often used to treat severe
depression symptoms.
Brain Stimulation
Brain Stimulation
The fact that about 45% of patients do not
response at all to drug treatment, direct approaches on the brain can be
helpful. In this case, brain stimulation can bring a significant improvement in
reducing the symptoms. The brain stimulation technique works by ‘awakening’ the
brain areas 'sleeping' by the depression using an electric current or a
magnetic field. This may sound shocking, but the procedure is painless and risk
free. The best known and most feared is electroconvulsive
therapy (ECT), a therapeutic procedure performed under general anesthesia used
mostly in severe cases of depression.
Electroconvulsive
Therapy
(ECT)
ECT treatment session usually lasts a few
seconds and performed under general anesthesia. It does not cause generalized
convulsion or major side effects. During the procedure, low electrical current
passes the brain creating a seizure in the brain only. This treatment is
cumbersome the fact it requires anesthesia. In addition, it is associated with
few side effects: headaches, confusion, and sometimes transient memory
disorders. After ten sessions over several weeks, ECT can be performed monthly
in order to consolidate the results. It works well in many treatment-resistant
depressions.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
This technique is available only in some hospitals and centers in the country. During the procedure, the patient is seated and conscious. A magnetic ring is placed next to specific areas of the brain and delivers a powerful magnetic field to rebalance the neural flow. It usually takes ten sessions of 30 minutes over 2 weeks to get good results.
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