Treatment of Depression: Behavioral Therapies and Medications

This article discusses the various therapeutic techniques used in the treatment of depression, including behavioral therapies and medications. It explores the causes of depression and alternative therapies available. The article also highlights the side effects of medications and the effectiveness of behavior-based therapies.

Running head: TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
In the modern stressful environment,
different mood disorders are common
leading to a major issue in behavioral
patterns of individuals. Depression is a
disorder which is tough to diagnose as it has
no physical symptoms apart from a few
behavioral changes (Segal, Williams and
Teasdale 2018). Therefore it is normally
assumed that a person suffers from
depression if they lose interest in their daily
life and routine for two weeks having
constant spells of sadness. Though it has no
physical signs, the effects of depression on
the lifestyle has its effects on the body. It is
the loss of appetite, changed sleeping
patterns lead to physical aftereffects on the
patient. Various methods have been devised
to treat the issue as it is becoming a rising
problem in today’s society. To treat
depression a number of cognitive and
behavioral therapies are used apart from
medication.
The therapeutic techniques used in
treatment of depression takes into account
finding the causal reasons of the depression
among the various patients. The kinds of
interventions used in the treatment of
depression are mainly psychological in
nature. The intervention methods in cases of
depression are based on number of
behavioral therapies. The therapies that can
be considered for the treatment of
depression are Cognitive behavioral therapy
(CBT), Interpersonal therapy (IPT) and
Psychodynamic therapy. The medical
treatment of depression takes into account
numerous hormone inhibiting medications.
Medicines such as serotonin, dopamine and
norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors help in
the treatment of depression.
Other than the traditional treatments
of depression there are a number of
alternative therapies which are used to treat
depression. The techniques used in the
alternative treatments include Electro

2
TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
Convulsive Therapy, Repetitive Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) and Vagus
Nerve Stimulation (VNS). These therapies
take into account alternative techniques
focusing on treatment of the disorders by
electrical and magnetic pulses to treat the
disorders. The alternative treatment options
of depression focus on the various
techniques that may help in treating the
disease by affecting the regions affected by
depression.
The treatment of depression have
been highly criticized for various side-
effects they have on human health. The
increase in the depression symptoms among
individuals in the society is the result of the
long term hectic schedules and lifestyle that
the people currently follow. The
improvement in mood disorders is
dependent on the various sociological
implications of lifestyle in the present
society. Depressive symptoms among people
in the society is the result of hard work and
extreme exposure to the extreme hectic
schedules lead to a fallacy in the minds of
the people regarding their well-being. The
causes of depression among the patients can
only be ascertained by understanding
behavioral patterns among individuals.
Causes of depression among the majority of
people in the society are emotional stress
they undergo.
The behavior therapies like CBT,
IPT and Psychodynamic approaches of
treatment of depression takes into account
behavioral changes among the individuals to
alleviate the depressive symptoms. The
behavioral patterns of the individuals is
result of a number of triggers that initiate
depression. The alleviation of triggers is one
of the best ways in the cure of depression.
The behavior therapies work on triggers of
depression among individuals in the society.
The triggers of depression may lie in a
number of reasons ranging from personal
ambitions to social stress factors among

3
TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
individuals. The behavioral therapies work
on triggers of these stresses and when done
in controlled environment help people to
remove the causal actions and make it a
pleasant experience (Gilbody et al. 2015).
The depressive symptoms among
individuals is affected by mood disorders
show extreme behavioral changes. The
mood swings and disorders among
individuals treated by behavior therapies are
unlikely to recur and person learns to control
them. There are however no physical side-
effects of the behavior therapies other than
dependence on the therapy to treat the issue.
The behavior based therapies are by far most
effective way of improving mood related
disorders in the patients of depression.
The medication which is prescribed
to the patients of depression include drugs
like Zoloft and Prozac which work on
serotonin reuptake. The hormonal
discrepancies found in the body is one of the
leading causes of depression. The
medication helps in alleviating the
symptoms along with helping in hormonal
control and mood swings. These
medications help in the improvement of
health of the individuals (Berry-Bibee et al.
2016). The people who suffer from mood
related disorders are highly likely to become
dependent on these drugs and they may
result in withdrawal symptoms in the
absence of the drugs. The treatment of
depression using reuptake inhibitor are
quickest way to address the problem but
their long use have shown to have addictive
and lead to reduction in their effectiveness.
The complexity of the use of these kind of
drugs help in curing depression but have
their own drawbacks. The numerous side-
effects include sleeping disorders, weight
gain, mood swings and effect on sexual
health
Apart from the usual medicinal drugs
and behavior based interventions, there are a
number of electrical and magnetic therapies

4
TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
which help in improving the condition of the
patient who has depression. Therapies like
ECT, rTMS and VNS focus on the
stimulation of a certain part of the brain
using the electric or the magnetic waves
(Sharma et al. 2018). While the others focus
on giving electric or magnetic pulses to the
brain externally, external electrodes are
placed in the brain for VNS. The side effect
of these therapies include mood disorders,
unwanted mood changes and sleeping
trouble. VNS however may make things
worse by leading to infections in the brain
and hemorrhages.
Therefore it can be seen that
depression is one of the rising problems in
society due to changing lifestyles and the
induced stress on the people. There are
number of therapeutic interventions for the
treatment of the diseases among patients.
The treatment focusses on improving the
lifestyle changes to make them revert to
their original self. In this contention, it is
seen that behavior therapies work best. The
medications have to be taken under extreme
circumstances and the electromagnetic
therapies are still under research for their
effectiveness.

5
TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION
References
Berry-Bibee, E.N., Kim, M.J., Simmons,
K.B., Tepper, N.K., Riley, H.E., Pagano,
H.P. and Curtis, K.M., 2016. Drug
interactions between hormonal
contraceptives and psychotropic drugs: a
systematic review. Contraception, 94(6),
pp.650-667.
Gilbody, S., Littlewood, E., Hewitt, C.,
Brierley, G., Tharmanathan, P., Araya, R.,
Barkham, M., Bower, P., Cooper, C., Gask,
L. and Kessler, D., 2015. Computerised
cognitive behaviour therapy (cCBT) as
treatment for depression in primary care
(REEACT trial): large scale pragmatic
randomised controlled trial. Bmj, 351,
p.h5627.
Segal, Z.V., Williams, M. and Teasdale,
J.D., 2018. Mindfulness-based cognitive
therapy for depression. Guilford
Publications.
Sharma, M.S., Ang-Rabanes, M., Selek, S.,
Gajwani, P. and Soares, J.C., 2018.
Neuromodulatory options for treatment-
resistant depression: Evidence is strongest
for ECT and rTMS, but other modalities
show promise. Current Psychiatry, 17(3),
pp.26-34.