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Depression Medication - The Ultimate Healer?
By David Richards
When a person is suffering from the severe mental illness called chronic depression, most likely he or she may need to be prescribed depression medication as soon as possible. If you or a family member or friend have experienced any of the classical symptoms of depression and these have lasted for more than a month, you or the person you care for may need to visit a physician without fail. The depressed person can help himself and the doctor to do a precise diagnosis, by providing as much details as possible about the experienced depressive problems. If you think you suffer from this disease, your problems might be severe enough to demand extra help. You will need to take a family member or a friend along on your first visit to the doctor, to make sure that you are helped in a proper way.
A good and proven way to find the proper treatment or medication for depression consists of
- a correct overview and analysis of your previous clinical history,
- a precise overview of the patients current status
- a correct diagnosis.
The first obvious step on your part, should normally be to provide every bit of information about your problem that you are able to give;
- your previous medical history,
- physical tests, and
- preliminary laboratory tests
can assist your doctor know a lot, if a general medical problem is the real cause of your malady. Most cases of depressions are caused by a general medical illness or medicines associated with those diseases. As soon as these conditions are identified and treated, the depression will usually disappear by itself. Unfortunately, successful depression medication treatment requires a bit from you too. It is simply not possible without your active cooperation and help; you should never hide anything from your doctor.
Based on the intensity or severity of the depression, the medication alternatives are classified in three main categories:
1. Instant or acute medication
2. post acute medication or medication after the acute phase.
3. Maintenance or long term medication
These depression medications are used to treat any one of the three main types or levels of depression symptoms, which are
- severe depression,
- moderate depression and
- mild depression
For each group of symptoms, most treatment methods or schools have attached a defined treatment or medication, which works better with a clinical efficiency.
The main purpose of acute or immediate medication is to systematically take off the severe symptoms of depression until you feel well and better.
Continuation medication means to continue the treatment on a more long term basis even after you feel fine. This is critical because it avoids the recurrence of depression after some time.
If you experience one or more episodes of recurrent depression, a third kind of medication, commonly called "maintenance treatment" or "maintenance medication" is commonly used. In this medication of depression, the patient is maintained on the depression treatment for a longer period of time.
There are many types of depression medication methods and combinations like
- antidepressant medicine
- antidepressant medicine combined with psychotherapy etc..
Be aware that medication for depression does not work instantly. As a matter of fact, it works slowly and gradually over a period of several months. However, with the correct medicine, most affected people will obtain good results within a month. If we compare with psychotherapy alone, medical treatment is significantly faster.
For this disease as for many others, early detection and correct medication are probably the most important parameters for a successful treatment. It is important to treat depression properly at any cost, as soon as it has been detected and diagnosed. If not, there are good chances that the depression may relapse again, with even more severity and intensity. About the Author David Richards is a writer and internet publisher who likes to publish info about depression that can help people with this disease. Read more at Depression.
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/44271.html
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Some other articles by David Richards | |
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