Depression. How To Treat - Antidepressants Or Psychotherapy?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Let's figure it out. Many psychiatrists, focused solely on medication and having prejudices about psychotherapy, insist that pills are first, pills second, and, of course, pills are also third. And if the pills don't work, then electroconvulsive therapy. Likewise, many psychologists and psychotherapists, who are fanatically committed to their paradigm of the world, believe that pills do not cure, but cripple, and that psychotherapy is the main and only method of help.

Today, experts around the world agree that both methods - medication and psychotherapeutic are equally important, but the degree of their influence and priority of use depend on the type and severity of the depressive disorder. This means that there is very little chance of successfully coping with a depressive episode without psychotherapy. Of course, it is quite possible to jump out on pills, especially if it is severe depression, because often the severity of the disorder is directly proportional to the effectiveness of antidepressant treatment. But it is important to remember that the first depressive episode triggers many "wrong" processes, both at the level of neurochemistry and in the field of thinking and perception. And if these processes remain without proper correction, then in the future the disease can be triggered by much weaker factors and acquire a chronic course.

And this is where the paths of medication and psychotherapy intersect. How exactly? Antidepressants promote the restoration of nerve cells and the formation of new neural connections, but in order for these new connections to form, material is needed for their formation - new experience, new patterns of thinking and behavior. But this is precisely the task of psychotherapy - to help a person see what he has not seen before, to give a different meaning to some things and situations and, as a result, to start reacting and acting in a new way.

If this does not happen, then we can medically muffle the symptoms of depression for a while, but a new stressful situation will trigger this process with even greater force.

Therefore, discussions on the topic of which method is tastier and healthier do not make sense - both are important. And both are also indicated in international clinical protocols. And the patient's condition, the causes of depression and some other concomitant factors will already determine in what ratio and sequence these methods will be used. It is important to clarify that some of the depressive disorders, mainly mild or moderate, with a clearly traced dependence on psychogenic factors, are quite amenable to correction with the help of psychotherapy alone. Provided that the doctor sees no reason to prescribe medication support, which in such situations is often very ineffective.