Everything You Need to Know about Depression
ByIt can be difficult and discouraging to live with a depressive illness, whether you have the illness yourself, or are helping a loved one cope with the disease. Fortunately, a great deal of exciting scientific research is currently being done to explore the nature of these illnesses, and to discover new treatments. In the next ten years or so, many developments are bound to change the way we view depression, and improve the ways we treat it.
New and intricate technologies – such as the positron emission tomography (PET) scan – are being developed, to allow scientists to see how the brain works in real time. Extraordinary advances in the field of neuroscience will help us understand the changes happening in the brain at a cellular level when someone has a depressive illness.
Recent advances in mapping the genetic code may lead to the identification of specific genetic profiles for these disorders. Some chromosome sites have been discovered in family pedigrees, although they don’t explain the defect in all cases.
Remember: depressive illness IS an illness
- It’s a common illness; one in five people suffers at least one bout at some time.
- It’s debilitating; of all chronic diseases, only heart disease causes more disability and death.
- It’s treatable: it responds well to various treatments, yet it’s not treated as soon or as often as it should be.
- Treatment that begins early and continues until the person is free of symptoms can decrease the frequency of recurrences and prevent the disease from becoming chronic.
If you’re dealing with a depressive illness, don’t let attitudes and misconceptions – your own, or other people’s – stand in your way. Talk to your doctor and your local mental health association. Talk to your friends and family. Get the help you need.
Developments in pharmacology are paving the way for drugs that are more specific to the illness, and less uncomfortable to take. Three-dimensional computer simulations of drugs can rule out the ones that won’t be effective, without unnecessary expense and delay. Some newer technologies, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, may allow us to treat depressive illness without the invasiveness and risks of drug therapy.
Toward the end of 2001, there were press reports that a nutritional pill containing ingredients used to cure pigs of ear-biting and tail-biting disease also reduced the symptoms of bipolar illness in 55 to 66 per cent of people after six months. Such reports are intriguing, but they call for more study. Before you rush off to the nearest animal feed supplier, remember that the placebo effect may account for half that improvement, and that the natural course of bipolar illness varies greatly.
Finding ways to identify the illness in younger age groups may help us intervene earlier, before the illness is full-blown. This may even allow prevention; there is evidence that starting treatment early and continuing it for a period of time after symptoms disappear may stop the illness from becoming chronic, as well as forestalling the more disabling symptoms.
While the potential high-tech approaches are dazzling, psychosocial treatments remain essential. Anyone who has been helped in therapy will tell you that, while the medications are useful, the care and insights received in therapy give hope that you can use for your whole life.
In 1992 the Defeat Depression Campaign was launched in the UK – a five-year campaign designed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Its aims were:
1. To educate health professionals, particularly general practitioners about recognizing and treating depression.
2. To educate the general public about depression and the availability of treatment in order to encourage people to seek help earlier.
3. To reduce the stigma associated with depression.
In April 2002 the Department of Health released the consultation document, National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, laying our strategies to reduce suicide rates in the UK.
Both these reports focused attention on prevention through education, urging that both front-line professionals (doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, teachers, clergy, and so on) and the general public be better informed about how depressive illnesses can be diagnosed early and treated effectively. Both reports also emphasized the fact that consumers of mental health services must feel empowered to speak of their needs and experiences, and must press for improved treatment and public awareness.
Since most of us have been touched, directly or indirectly, by these illnesses, there’s no reason to feel alone. When people share their experiences through talking and writing, the illnesses become more understandable and less frightening for everyone. There is hope out there. We need to share it.
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