Treatments

A large number of different treatments are available for depression.

 

New treatments (particularly medications) appear regularly. Continuing research means that the evidence for how well a treatment works is always changing too. We have chosen to give only a brief summary of treatments and instead direct you to other sites which provide more comprehensive details.

 

Key points about treatments for depression

 

• We believe that different types of depression respond best to different sorts of treatments (see below).
• It's important that a thorough and thoughtful assessment be carried out before any treatment is prescribed.
• Treatments for depression include physical and psychological treatments.
• Depression can sometimes go away of its own accord but, left untreated, it may last for many months. Allow yourself to seek help.
• Depending on the nature of your depression, self-help and alternate therapies can also be helpful, either alone or in conjunction with physical and psychological treatments.

 

Different types of depression need to be treated differently

 

At the Institute we believe there are different types of depression, falling into the following three principal classes:

 

• Melancholic depression
• Non-melancholic depression
• Psychotic depression.

 

Those types of depression that are more biological in their origins (melancholic depression and psychotic melancholia) are more likely to need physical treatments and less likely to be resolved with psychological treatments alone.

 

We believe non-melancholic depression can be treated equally effectively with physical treatments (antidepressants) or with psychological treatments.