Depression Treatment

Treatment Goals

Why do we talk about treatment goals? Wouldn't everybody's goal be to get completely better? This is a very important question. Our first goal in all cases is to bring depression into remission. In other words we want to return people to their previous level of functioning before depression occurred. Unfortunately many people choose to settle for only partial improvement. Many people with depression prefer to settle for partial remission rather than increase the dose of their medication to achieve full remission. However, people who choose only partial remission have a higher likelihood of experiencing a relapse. They also have shorter depression free periods than people who choose full remission.

• Achieving full remission;
• And by keeping the patient on medication for a long enough period of time to prevent relapse.

Many people choose to go off treatment soon after their symptoms have gone away. People who do this too soon often experience relapse. People who remain on medication treatment for a period of six months to one year after achieving remission have a much better prognosis. They have fewer relapses and longer periods of time between relapses.

It is recommended that people who have had two or more relapses of Major Depressive Disorder remain on medication treatment to prevent further relapses and to prevent relapses from becoming too severe, if they do occur.