Effectiveness Of Drug Therapies In The Treatment Of Depression

Treatment

There are several ways of treating depression. A method of treatment is chosen depending on the type of depression a patient is suffering from and also basing on the patient’s choice of the method of treatment. Methods of treatment can vary from use of drugs, psychotherapy, collaborating with family members, friends and other people close to the patient to try to change the patient’s perspective towards everything. Physical treatment (the use of drugs) works best for patients whose depression is of a biological basis for example menopause among women. Psychotherapy on the other hand is most preferred for depressions that result from stress due to socio-economic problems of example financial difficulties, relationship issues.

The use of drugs is an attempt to relieve the symptoms that are related to depression. Some of the drugs normally used include Irreversible Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOIs), Tricyclics, and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). The use of this medication has had its success and could be considered effective in treatment of depression. According to Use of Medication in Treatment of Childhood and Adolescent Depression, in article published by a membership for Parents and Medical workgroup, 61% of patients who receive medication alone for depression normally recover. This means that medication of depression has been quite effective and could be adopted in treatment of depression.

About 65% of patients show some response upon receiving the first medication. The remaining proportion show response upon receiving the subsequent medication whether or not the medication is administered together with some cognitive behavioural therapy. After receiving medication convictions of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, etc are lost.

Despite the effectiveness of drugs in treatment of depression, there are also negative effects of using drugs alone in the treatment of depression. CITATION Gio03 l 1033 (Giovani, 2003) argues that prolonged use of antidepressant drugs may be effective over a short period of time but may a have harmful effects that outweigh the advantages in the long run. A study conducted by Viguera et al, indicates that the more depressants a patient uses, the higher the chances of a relapse occurring. Patients who used antidepressants throughout the recovery period had depression relapsing while those who used it for first six to eight months of medication had lower relapses. It can also be argued that the use of drugs only relieves the symptoms of depression but not the cause.

Additionally, with continued use of antidepressant drugs, there occurs tolerance to that particular drug. When the body has gotten used to the antidepressant there is a tendency for pharmacological tolerance and cycling to occur. There also is a tendency of detrimental chemicals that breaks down the drug to accumulate in the body. When drugs are taken by the patient, these harmful chemicals break down the drug, reducing its concentration and eventually its effectiveness. With the body repeatedly getting used to the drugs, its sensitivity to the drugs reduces. An example of a person who lives in tropical Africa and has been used to mosquito bites is less likely to have allergic reactions towards a mosquito bite unlike a person from Western Europe who has never encountered mosquitoes. The individual from Europe will have severe allergic reactions to a mosquito bite. In the same way, a body used to antidepressants will show little sensitivity if he/she consumes the drug.

Use of drugs to treat depression is also prone to resistance. This is a situation where an initially effective drug becomes ineffective after some drug-free period. Resistance to antidepressants results from a repeated administration of a particular antidepressant. It is believed that use of a single kind of antidepressant induces some pharmacodynamic reactions within the patient’s body that make the body to ‘resist’ or show no change when under the drug.

There is a developing practice of irresponsive use of antidepressant drugs among the modern generation. People use to use antidepressant drugs to treat every condition that resembles depression. There are cases of people using antidepressants using fluoxetine (a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) to treat cases such as boredom and demoralization. This could have a very bad impact on the individuals and on the effectiveness of the drugs. When people make their bodies familiar to antidepressants, they increase their chances of experiencing antidepressant resistance and tolerance if at one point are affected by depression and need to use these drugs. Irresponsive use of these drugs also makes one vulnerable to depression since the body’s mechanism cannot on its own control moods and stresses.

It is therefore important that people find other ways to deal with depression or find other ways to make augment medication and make it more effective in treatment of depression. It is important that people understand proper ways of preventing depression so as to make its control easier. Prevention of depression is all about having a proper state of mind. One therefore has to learn to find ways of putting himself/herself in a proper state of mind. Since people have different personalities, different likes and dislikes, there are no particular ways that can help everybody avoid depression. However, the most common ways include doing regular exercises, listening to music, participating in co curricular activities for students, going for walks, dancing etc.

In the case that depression has occurred, better methods such as Inter-Personal Therapy (IPT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be applied. Inter-Personal Therapy is applied when ones depression results from peoples’ failure in aspects of social therapy. If someone wronged another one and in the process one is depressed, treatment if this method is applied involves the offender apologizing to the offended so that proper mindset of the offended can be restored. The affected individual then has to be educated on how to deal with his/her own personality in relation to other people so as to avoid the occurrence of other cases in future.

Another way of depression treatment is the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This method is effective for depression that do not have biologic basis. People in this kind of state have a negative attitude towards themselves, their neighbours, and about their environment. CBT uses approaches that try to change these peoples’ attitude so that they develop a positive attitude towards the world around them.

IPT and CBT are both good methods of treating depression which reduces by a great extent the chances of recurrence. However, they are useful in treating depressions that do not have biologic origins. They also require more manpower and more time for it to be effective unlike the use of drugs which requires comparatively less time and less manpower.