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Depression is one of the most common health conditions in the world. Depression isn't a weakness, nor is it something that you can simply "snap out of." Depression, formally called major depression, major depressive disorder or clinical depression, is a medical illness that involves the mind and body. It affects how you think and behave and can cause a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may not be able to go about your usual daily activities, and depression may make you feel as if life just isn't worth living anymore.
Most health professionals today consider depression a chronic illness that requires long-term treatment, much like Diabetes or high Blood pressure. Although some people experience only one episode of depression, most have repeated episodes of depression symptoms throughout their life.
Effective Diagnosis and treatment can help reduce even severe depression symptoms. And with effective treatment, most people with depression feel better, often within weeks, and can return to the daily activities they previously enjoyed.
Symptoms of depression include:
Depression symptoms can vary greatly because different people experience depression in different ways. A 25-year-old man with depression may not have the same symptoms as a 70-year-old man, for instance. For some people, depression symptoms are so severe that it's obvious something isn't right. Others may feel generally miserable or unhappy without really knowing why.
It's not known specifically What causes depression. As with many mental illnesses, it's thought that a variety of biochemical, genetic and environmental factors may cause depression:
Although precise statistics Aren't known, depression is considered relatively common. In any given year, about 12 million adults in the United States have depression. Depression Cuts across all racial, ethnic and economic divides — no one is immune from the risk of getting depression.
Depression typically begins in the late 20s, but it can arise at any age, affecting everyone from young Children to older adults. Twice as many Women are diagnosed with depression as men, but this may be due in part because women are more likely to seek treatment for depression.
Although the precise cause of depression isn't known, researchers have identified certain factors that seem to increase the risk of developing or triggering depression, including:
Depression is one of the most common health conditions in the world. Depression isn't a weakness, nor is it something that you can simply "snap out of." Depression, formally called major depression, major depressive disorder or clinical depression, is a medical illness that involves the mind and body. It affects how you think and behave and can cause a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may not be able to go about your usual daily activities, and depression may make you feel as if life just isn't worth living anymore.
Most health professionals today consider depression a chronic illness that requires long-term treatment, much like diabetes or high blood pressure. Although some people experience only one episode of depression, most have repeated episodes of depression symptoms throughout their life.
Effective diagnosis and treatment can help reduce even severe depression symptoms. And with effective treatment, most people with depression feel better, often within weeks, and can return to the daily activities they previously enjoyed.
Some doctors and Health care providers may ask you questions about your mood and thoughts during routine medical visits. They may even ask you to fill out a brief questionnaire to help screen, or check, for depression symptoms.
When doctors suspect someone has depression, they typically run a battery of medical and psychological tests and exams. These can help rule out other problems that could be causing your symptoms, pinpoint a diagnosis and also check for any related complications. These exams and tests generally include:
Diagnostic criteria for depression
There are several other conditions whose symptoms may include depression. It's important to get an accurate diagnosis so you can get the appropriate treatment. Your doctor or mental health provider's evaluation will help determine if you have major depression or one of these other conditions that can sometimes resemble major depression:
Major depression is distinguished from these other conditions by its symptoms and their severity. To be diagnosed with major depression, you must meet the symptom criteria spelled out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This manual is published by the American Psychiatric Association and is used by mental health providers to diagnose mental conditions and by insurance companies to reimburse for treatment.
Diagnostic criteria for depression include:
Make sure you understand what type of depression you have so that you can learn more about your specific situation and its treatments.
It's perfectly normal to occasionally feel sad or upset, or to be unhappy with situations in your life. But with depression, these feelings linger for weeks, months or even years. And these feelings also are much more intense than "just the blues" and can interfere with relationships, work and daily activities, and even your ability to eat and bathe.
Feelings of depression can also lead to suicide. If you have any symptoms of depression, seek medical help as soon as possible. Depression usually Doesn't get better on its own, and it may even get worse if left untreated.
If you have a primary care doctor, talk to him or her about your depression symptoms. Or seek help from a mental health provider. If you're reluctant to seek treatment, try to work up the courage to confide in someone about your feelings, whether it's a friend or loved one, a health care professional, a faith leader or someone else you trust. They can help you take the first steps to successful treatment of depression.
When you have suicidal thoughts
Suicidal thoughts and behavior are common among people with depression. If you're considering suicide right now and have the means available, talk to someone now. The best choice is to call 911 or your local emergency services number. If you simply don't want to do that, for whatever reason, you have other choices for reaching out to someone:
Helping a loved one with depression symptoms
If you have a loved one who you think may have symptoms of depression, have an open and honest discussion about your concerns. You may not be able to force someone to seek professional care, but you can offer encouragement and support.
You can also help your loved one find a qualified doctor or mental health provider and make an appointment. You may even be able to go to an appointment with him or her. If you have a loved one who has harmed himself or herself, or is seriously considering doing so, take him or her to the hospital or call for emergency help.
Numerous treatments for depression are available. Standard depression treatment options include:
Emerging and less-studied treatments for depression include:
In some cases, your primary care doctor can treat your depression. In other cases, you may benefit from treatment with a qualified mental health provider, such as a psychiatrist, Psychologist or social worker.
Try to be an active participant in your depression treatment. Working together, you and your doctor or therapist can decide which treatment options may be best for your situation, depending on your symptoms and their severity, your personal preferences, insurance coverage, affordability, treatment side effects and other factors. In some cases, though, depression is so severe that a doctor, loved one or guardian may need to guide your care until you're well enough to participate in decision making.
Here's a closer look at your depression treatment options.
Medications
Dozens of medications are available to treat depression. Most people find the best relief of depression symptoms by combining medications and psychotherapy. Some medications for depression are antidepressants that have been specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat depression. Doctors also can use their medical judgment to prescribe other medications that Haven't been FDA approved to treat depression but that may be effective anyway — a common and perfectly legal practice called off-label use.
There are several different Types of Antidepressants. Antidepressants are generally categorized by how they affect the naturally occurring biochemicals in your brain to change your mood. To determine which antidepressant may be best for you, doctors typically follow general practice guidelines. They may also ask you to take a blood test called the cytochrome P450 test, which can help identify genetic factors that influence your response to certain antidepressants (as well as some other medications).
Other factors that are considered when choosing an antidepressant are your symptoms, your family history of depression, and other conditions you may have. Don't give up until you find an antidepressant or Medication that's suitable for you — you have a good chance of finding one that works and that doesn't have intolerable side effects, even if it takes a few tries.
Most antidepressants are equally effective. But some pose a higher risk of serious side effects. Here's how antidepressants and other medications are generally considered when you're starting treatment for depression:
Typical first choices. Many doctors start treatment with antidepressants by prescribing an antidepressant known as an SSRI — a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. This is because the side effects of the medications in the SSRI class of antidepressants are generally more tolerable than are those of other types of antidepressants, and they also generally work well. SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and escitalopram (Lexapro).
Other common first choices for antidepressants include serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), combined reuptake inhibitors and receptor blockers, and tetracyclic antidepressants.
Side effects of antidepressants
All antidepressants can cause unwanted side effects. Not everyone experiences the same number or intensity of side effects, though. You may find that your side effects are so mild that you don't need to stop taking the antidepressant. Coping strategies also can help you manage side effects. In addition, side effects often go away or lessen within several weeks of starting an antidepressant.
If you experience unpleasant or intolerable side effects, don't just stop taking an antidepressant without consulting your doctor first. Some antidepressants can cause withdrawal-like symptoms unless you slowly taper off your dose.
Precautions when taking antidepressants
Although studies have shown that antidepressants are generally safe, some precautions are in order when taking them. The FDA now requires that all antidepressant medications carry black box warnings. These are the strictest warnings that the FDA can issue for Prescription Medications.
The antidepressant warnings note that in some cases, children, adolescents and young adults ages 18 to 24 may have an increase in suicidal thoughts or behavior when taking antidepressants, especially in the first few weeks after starting an antidepressant or when the dose is changed. Because of this risk, people in these age groups must be closely monitored by loved ones, caregivers and health care providers while taking antidepressants.
Some antidepressants have the potential of causing serious or even life-threatening health problems, such as liver failure or a dangerous drop in white Cell count. While such cases are rare, it's important to get blood work or other tests on schedule and stick to your treatment regimen. Make sure you understand the risks of the medications you're taking and that you're being properly monitored.
In addition, if you're Pregnant or Breast-Feeding, some antidepressants may pose an increased health risk to your unborn child or nursing child. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you have. Again, make sure you understand the risks of the various antidepressants. Working together, you and your doctor can explore options to get your depression symptoms under control.
Waiting for antidepressants to work
It can take as long as eight to 12 weeks to gain the full benefits of an antidepressant, although you may notice some improvements in your mood before that. Certain genetic factors may influence whether or not an antidepressant works for you and how long it takes for symptoms to improve. (DHF review) If you haven't had improvements in your mood and thoughts, your doctor may suggest either increasing your dose, combining medications or switching to a new medication.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is another key depression treatment. It's often used along with medication treatment. Psychotherapy is a general term for a way of treating depression by talking about your condition and related issues with a mental health provider. Psychotherapy is also known as therapy, talk therapy, counseling or psychosocial therapy.
Through these talk sessions, you learn about the Causes of Depression so that you can better understand it. You also learn how to identify and make changes in unhealthy behavior or thoughts, explore relationships and experiences, find better ways to cope and solve problems, and set realistic goals for your life. Psychotherapy can help you regain a sense of happiness and control in your life and help alleviate depression symptoms, such as hopelessness and anger. It also may help you adjust to a crisis or other current difficulty.
There are several types of psychotherapy that are effective for depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most commonly used talk therapies for depression. This type of therapy helps you identify pessimistic, negative beliefs and behaviors and replace them with healthy, positive ones. It's based on the idea that your own thoughts — not other people or situations — determine how you behave. Even if an unwanted situation doesn't change, you can change the way you think and behave in a positive way. Interpersonal therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy are other types of therapy commonly used to treat depression.
Electroconvulsive therapy
In electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electrical currents are passed through the brain to trigger a seizure. Although many people are leery of ECT and its side effects, it typically offers fast, effective relief of depression symptoms. Experts aren't sure how this therapy relieves the signs and symptoms of depression. The procedure may affect levels of neurotransmitters in your brain. The most common side effect is confusion, which can last from a few minutes to several hours. Some people also experience partial memory loss, but memory often returns.
ECT is usually used for people who don't get better with medications and for those at high risk of suicide. It may be the only treatment available for older adults with severe depression who can't take medications because of heart disease.
Hospitalization and residential treatment programs
It's not often that depression becomes so severe that you require psychiatric hospitalization. And even when depression is severe, it still may not be easy to decide if hospitalization is appropriate. If you can be treated just as effectively or better outside of the hospital, your doctor probably won't recommend hospitalization.
Psychiatric hospitalization is generally recommended only when you aren't able to care for yourself properly or when you're in immediate danger of harming yourself or someone else. Psychiatric hospitalization options include 24-hour inpatient care, partial or day hospitalization, or residential treatment, which offers a supportive place to live.
Nontraditional depression treatment options
If standard depression treatment hasn't been effective, you may want to try nontraditional depression treatments. These options, sometimes called neurotherapeutic treatments, involve direct stimulation of your brain. They include:
There's no sure way to prevent depression. However, taking steps to control stress, to increase your resilience and to boost low self-esteem may help. Friendship and social support, especially in times of crisis, can help you weather rough spells. In addition, treatment at the earliest sign of a problem can help prevent depression from worsening. Long-term maintenance treatment also may help prevent a relapse of depression symptoms.
Depression generally isn't an illness that you can treat on your own. But you can do some things for yourself that will build on your treatment plan. In addition to professional treatment, follow these self-care steps for depression:
It's perfectly normal to occasionally feel sad or upset, or to be unhappy with situations in your life. But with depression, these feelings linger for weeks, months or even years. And these feelings also are much more intense than "just the blues" and can interfere with relationships, work and daily activities, and even your ability to eat and bathe.
Feelings of depression can also lead to suicide. If you have any symptoms of depression, seek medical help as soon as possible. Depression usually doesn't get better on its own, and it may even get worse if left untreated.
If you have a primary care doctor, talk to him or her about your depression symptoms. Or seek help from a mental health provider. If you're reluctant to seek treatment, try to work up the courage to confide in someone about your feelings, whether it's a friend or loved one, a health care professional, a faith leader or someone else you trust. They can help you take the first steps to successful treatment of depression.
When you have suicidal thoughts
Suicidal thoughts and behavior are common among people with depression. If you're considering suicide right now and have the means available, talk to someone now. The best choice is to call 911 or your local emergency services number. If you simply don't want to do that, for whatever reason, you have other choices for reaching out to someone:
Helping a loved one with depression symptoms
If you have a loved one who you think may have symptoms of depression, have an open and honest discussion about your concerns. You may not be able to force someone to seek professional care, but you can offer encouragement and support.
You can also help your loved one find a qualified doctor or mental health provider and make an appointment. You may even be able to go to an appointment with him or her. If you have a loved one who has harmed himself or herself, or is seriously considering doing so, take him or her to the hospital or call for emergency help.
It's not known specifically what causes depression. As with many mental illnesses, it's thought that a variety of biochemical, genetic and environmental factors may cause depression:
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) , Prescription Medications , Types of Antidepressants , Schizoaffective disorder , Postpartum Depression , Causes of Depression , Complete blood count , Neurotransmitter
