Christian
LifeSkills
For
Personal & Spiritual Growth
DIAGNOSTIC
EVALUATION AND TREATMENT
The first
step to getting appropriate treatment is a complete physical and psychological
evaluation to determine whether you have a depressive illness, and if so what
type you have. Certain medications as well as some medical conditions can cause
symptoms of depression and the examining physician should rule out these
possibilities through examination, interview, and lab tests.
A good
diagnostic evaluation also will include a complete history of your symptoms,
i.e., when they started, how long they have lasted, how severe they are, whether
you've had them before and, if so, whether you were treated and what treatment
you received. Your doctor should ask you about alcohol and drug use, and if you
have thoughts about death or suicide. Further, a history should include
questions about whether other family members have had a depressive illness and
if treated, what treatments they may have received and which were effective.
Last, a
diagnostic evaluation will include a mental status examination to determine if
your speech or thought patterns or memory have been affected, as often happens
in the case of a depressive or manic-depressive illness.
Treatment
choice will depend on the outcome of the evaluation. There are a variety of
antidepressant medications and psychotherapies that can be used to treat
depressive disorders. Some people do well with psychotherapy, some with
antidepressants. Some do best with combined treatment: medication to gain
relatively quick symptom relief and psychotherapy to learn more effective ways
to deal with life's problems. Depending on your diagnosis and severity of
symptoms, you may be prescribed medication and/or treated with one of the
several forms of psychotherapy that have proven effective for depression.
At times,
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is useful, particularly for individuals whose
depression is severe or life threatening or who cannot take antidepressant
medication. ECT often is effective in cases where antidepressant medications do
not provide sufficient relief of symptoms. In recent years, ECT has been much
improved. The treatment is given in the hospital under sedation so that people
receiving ECT do not feel pain.
Source: National Institute of Mental Health
Return to Plain Talk about Depression