Why isn't my depression treatment effective?
If you find your depression treatments aren't working, there are several questions you should ask yourself that may help. In this video, psychiatrist Sudeepta Varma, MD, discusses the factors that may be impeding your treatment, and what you can do.
Transcript
SUE VARMA: Some people may find that their depression treatments are not working. And the first thing that I want to ask them is, are you taking your medication regularly as
prescribed by your doctor? [MUSIC PLAYING]
Some people say that I'm feeling OK today. I felt like I didn't need to take my medication, or I left it at home, or I'm traveling and I forgot to take it with me.
So taking your medication every single day as prescribed by your doctor at the time that you need to take it. Some people find that there is a lapse of instead
of 24 hours, perhaps, 36 hours. So trying to be very regular with your medication. Are you taking the right dose?
And that's an important reason why people perhaps are not feeling better. People say that I've been taking a dose. And when I find out the dose perhaps
was a starting dose that was suggested by their primary care doctor, but that was maybe five years ago, and they stayed on the starting dose of the medication.
They have not been optimized to what we call the therapeutic level of the medication. Number three, have you been taking it for long enough?
So not only is it the right dose that you're taking regularly, but are you also taking it for a long period of time,
in the treatment of depression, at least six to eight weeks to have a therapeutic effect. If after that you have not had any response,
then perhaps, consider switching to another medication. That might be helpful. If switching to another medication, perhaps, within the same category has not helped,
then switching in another category. And lastly, perhaps you might need what's called adjunctive treatment. So we often find that in addition
to, for example, an antidepressant, perhaps, a low dose anti-anxiety medication, perhaps a sleep medication, so at this point having combinations
of medications are helpful. It's also very important to get a very thorough medical evaluation. We find that people who are not responding to treatment
of depression may have underlying chronic medical illnesses that are causing it, so for example, diabetes, anemia, thyroid problems.
These are all very three big reasons. Perhaps, even cancer, maybe certain types of brain diseases, brain cancer, Alzheimer's, there
are a variety-- Parkinson's-- there's a variety of medical illnesses which can mask a depression, or at least prevent it from getting better.
So if you're not getting better, definitely see a specialist, a psychiatrist, and also get a thorough medical evaluation
to make sure that there aren't any medical illnesses that are preventing your depression from getting better. [AUDIO LOGO]
mental health behavior
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