What is Depression?
Depression can be complex and multi-factorial. Often depression includes feelings of sadness, numbness, or a lack of energy that can last days, weeks, or months. One may experience changes in sleeping, eating, or hygiene routines and may stop engaging with friends, or work, or activities they used to enjoy. Sometimes, feelings of hopeless or that life is no longer worth living increase and lead to suicidal thoughts.
Treatment for Depression?
There are numerous effective treatment for depression. There is a wide variety of medications including new treatment options becoming available.
In addition to medications, some other treatment modalities include psychotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and ketamine. Sometimes, more severe depressive episodes require inpatient hospitalization for appropriate treatment. While this practice does not provide these treatments, they may be discussed.
How can our Practice Help with Depression?
Through thorough psychiatric evaluation and years of experience we strive to establish a medication treatment schedule which maximizes improvement of symptoms while minimizing any negative effects. Ongoing monitoring can be important in decreasing unnecessary medication with ongoing stability.