Psychotherapy is often the first form of treatment recommended for depression. Called “therapy” for short, the word psychotherapy actually involves a variety of treatment techniques. During psychotherapy, a person with depression talks to a licensed and trained mental healthcare professional who helps him or her identify and work through the factors that may be causing their depression.Sometimes these factors work in combination with heredity or chemical imbalances in the brain to trigger depression. Taking care of the psychological and psychosocial aspects of depression is important.
How to Treat Depression Without Taking Antidepressants
Depression has different causes. And each cause needs a different approach to treatment.
Unfortunately, new research shows that they don’t work and have significant side effects.
In fact, most patients taking antidepressants either don’t respond or have only partial response.
Brain pacemakers can treat depression
How To Treat Depression- The findings reported that the technique is not effective in all patients, but when patients respond, the results are significant. The study also revealed that some refractory cases unresponsive to medication, psychotherapy or shock treatment were cured.
How To Treat Depression- Scientists say that contrary to Parkinson patients, the thalamus is not the right spot for placing DBS electrodes in depressed individuals. They believe the ventral capsule/striatum and Brodmann Area 25 are better choices.
How To Treat Depression- Exciting research shows that the thyroid hormone called T3 can help treat depression (1,2,3). Psychotherapy often fails to control depression. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychotherapy, proposed theories about depression, that many psychiatrists do not accept because his writings were his opinions and not presented as scientific data supported by controlled experiments. The dominant theory today is that depression is caused by low brain levels of the neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine. The drugs such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft that treat depression are supposed to raise brain levels of these neurotransmitters. Doctors can also raise brain levels of serotonin by prescribing pills containing T3, a hormone produced by peripheral tissue from T4, which is produced by the thyroid gland. (1) They also prescribe T3 by itself or together with antidepressants.
How To Treat Depression- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce images of the brain. The patient lies on a table that is moved into the scanner (a narrow cylinder), wearing earplugs to muffle loud knocking and thumping sounds that occur during the scanning process. The procedure lasts about 45 minutes, during which the patient will be asked to lie still for minutes at a time.
How To Treat Depression- Lumbar puncture (spinal tap): For this procedure, a local anesthetic is given and a needle is inserted in the space between the bones in the lower back where the CSF circulates below the spinal cord. A small amount of fluid is collected through the needle.
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