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Self-Injurious Behavior

Treatments for Depression

There are two main treatments for depression: Psychotherapy and biological treatment. Psychotherapy is most often cognitive-behavioral and/or interpersonal therapy. It focuses on changing the patient's distorted views of themselves and their environment; working through difficult relationships; identifying stressors in the patient's environment and learning how to cope with them. Biological methods use medications or “shock therapy” to stimulate the parts of the patient’s brain needed to relieve depression.

Psychotherapy

Individual therapy - Interpersonal psychotherapy, or Cognitive-behavioral therapies
Family therapy
Group therapy
Marital therapy

Biological Treatments

Antidepressant medications, especially when combined with psychotherapy has shown to be very effective in the treatment of Depression in patients.
Other medications include: Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Monoamine-oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs), and Lithium.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), a form of electric shock, is considered the most effective of all the antidepressant treatments with over 80% responding (Maxmen & Ward, 1995).

Advice

Parents play a major role in the treatment process.

For several reasons, parents often do not seek treatment for their child.

However, approximately 80% of all people with major depression who seek treatment usually improve within weeks (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).

Depression in children and adolescents is also associated with an increased risk for suicide.

Therefore, it is extremely important for parents and caregivers to take all depressive and suicidal symptoms very seriously and seek treatment immediately.

Getting help from somebody else isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength.

The information provided on this site should not replace your physician’s advice.