Effectiveness of Depression Disorder Treatments

EFFECTIVENESS OF DEPRESSION DISORDER TREATMENTS 1
Comparison of the Effectiveness of Depression Disorder Treatments
Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Institutional
Date

EFFECTIVENESS OF DEPRESSION DISORDER TREATMENTS 2
In patients with depressive disorder are supplementary cognitive behavior therapy
more effective than pharmacotherapy alone?
A depressive disorder is where an individual has ongoing blues and is persistently filled
with feelings of sadness and worthlessness. They also do not have the desire to take part in
activities that brought them joy and pleasure before. Therefore this is a medical condition that
affects the body, thoughts, and mood. This is an illness and thus it cannot be wished away by the
person affected by it and if the individual does not seek treatment it can last for a long period.
Therefore an individual can seek different forms of treatments to remedy the form of depression
that they are facing. One route of treatment that can be taken is pharmacotherapy. This is where a
medical professional treating the depression patient prescribes a number of pharmaceutical drugs
that are meant to manage the symptoms of depression and therefore manage the disease.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is another course of treatment taken for depression patients.
This is a form of psychotherapy which deals with the problems causing the depression treating
them and also boosting happiness in the patient. It boosts happiness by modifying the patient’s
mood, thoughts, behavior, and emotions (Cuijpers et.al 2014, pp. 63).There exist debates whether
CBT is more effective than pharmacotherapy and this essay will cover this by comparing articles
on these two treatments .
Depression disorder is quite common and affects a huge chunk of the world’s population
and in Australia specifically, it affects more than 1 million adults yearly and 45 % of the
population will affect a form of mental health issue in their lifetime. Therefore because of this its
necessary for there to be treatments to help these individuals bein affected by this. Depression is
not a condition where an individual can just wish it away they have to find ways to cope with the
symptoms and treatments like pharmacotherapy and CBT have been successful (Gibbons et.al

EFFECTIVENESS OF DEPRESSION DISORDER TREATMENTS 3
2016, pp. 910). Pharmacotherapy is used to treat depression but there are studies which show that
when it is used alone it does not effectively treat these symptoms associated with depression. This
treatment can have negative side effects on the patients such as the patient losing weight, increase
in suicidal thoughts, sexual side effects and sedation which can mildly or severely impact a
patients value of life. These studies suggest that the therapy should be supplemented with CBT
because patients can learn coping strategies they can use in future, therefore, depression patients
get the best treatment possible. However, others disagree and suggest that pharmacotherapy can
be an effective treatment for depression on its own. Therefore this is an important subject that
should be discussed in depth and a conclusion be made on the best course of treatment for patients
to be prescribed (Millan, Goodwin, Meyer-Lindenberg and Ögren 2015, pp. 634).
Depression is quite common in Australia, therefore, the Australian health system has taken
steps to have treatments in place for this condition. There are guidelines in place which help
medical professionals deal with mood disorders these guidelines are called the Royal Australian
and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders (Malhi
et.al 2015, pp.1090). This gives clear and up to date guidelines in regards to how to manage mood
disorders like depression in Australian hospitals and this is informed by evidence from clinical
treatments using these methods (Solomon, Proudfoot, Clarke and Christensen 2015).
The first article is called “Long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of cognitive
behavioral therapy as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy for treatment-resistant depression in primary
care”. It is an article about a study carried out to find out the effectiveness of treatment of
treatment-resistant depression with pharmacotherapy being supplemented with CBT. Although
CBT is an effective treatment there is no evidence that exists which shows how it affects a patient
in the long term and this study was meant to find this out. This study showed the long-term cost-

EFFECTIVENESS OF DEPRESSION DISORDER TREATMENTS 4
effectiveness of using CBT as compared to pharmacotherapy. Also, this article shows that 50% of
depression patients do not respond to pharmacotherapy, therefore, CBT is an effective course of
treatment for these patients. Hence, due to these findings, the article suggests that more patients
with drug-resistant forms of depression should be referred to use CBT in conjunction with the
pharmacology (Wiles et.al 2016, pp 140).
The second article “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression Medication” talks about
how CBT has been used to treat depression. It states that CBT is commonly used as a standalone
treatment when the case of depression is mild and lasts for a short period of time however when it
in its severe form pharmacotherapy is used in conjunction with pharmacotherapy. It shows that
there are advantages of using a combination of both treatments in patients and the pros are seen
more inpatients suffering from more chronic forms of depression (Thase, Kingdon and
Turkington 2014, pp. 238). They work together in that pharmacotherapy may give relief and deal
with earlier symptoms of depression while CBT improves them symptoms of depression for a
long period. CBT deals with symptoms such as anxiety and procrastination helping the patient
follow a strict schedule, therefore, the patient will take their medication at the right time and thus
making pharmacotherapy more effective. Also, it has been seen that CBT reduces instances of
hospitalization. Pharmacotherapy then helps CBT n that the medication given can help the patient
increase concentration, increased energy and help maintain good sleep patterns which will all help
CBT to be more effective (Halverson 2018).
The third article called “Efficacy of Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy for Adult
Psychiatric Disorders” talks about the results of a study carried out to find out the efficiency the
two treatments, pharmacotherapy, and psychotherapy, for depressions in adults. There is an
existing debate about how effective the treatments for psychiatric disorders really are and whether