My own personal research provides support that shows medication costs more to the economy and is less beneficial to patients with depression than therapy. It also provides support that shows people tested with depression were straight away offered medication and no form of therapy.
I would love to hear other people's thoughts or experiences with this topic.
The following is a very controversial but very interesting recent publication on just such this concern. I particularly like the comment threads where the authors have actually written pretty much new articles in response to what amount to a pile of often critical reader comments.
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045
Dear Rachel I have done extensive research in this area and the convergence of evidence indicates that combined therapies work best due to their actions on physiological pathways. Combined therapies means for instance Pharmacological treatment in conjunction with Psychotherapy. Naturally there are many different types of pharmacological treatment and Psychotherapies, however the indication is that a combination is the most succesful for positive long term outcomes. The most comprehensive study done and the most important to date are the the STAR*D trials. They are available on the pubmed and NIMH sites. Hope this helps.
Hey guys, thanks for all of your responses.
Damian, i completely agree that it is a controversial subject and one that not many people are willing to comment on. Thank you for your contribution.
Klaus, thank you for guiding these articles my way. Both very interesting. In the second article they seem to pay more attention to therapies and talking through problems and only briefly discuss medication. I personally feel that anti-depressants are given as an "easy option" in my personal experience.
Cheryl, yes I 100% agree with you that a combination should be used in order to treat depression. Will have a browse at the STAR*D trials.
Thanks all for you input!!
I agree with Cheryl. Seeing as depression research hasn't given us any precise and decisive answers on what depression is and what causes it, and until we do it's foolish to think that medication can ever be a perfect fix.
We know that something external like conditioning can induce real physiological change in ways that we do not yet understand. So a combination of meds and therapy are almost always the better choice.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Psychology