About Depression

Depression is a common illness that causes feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or loss. Depression is a medical illness and is treatable. When depression is severe and lasts longer than 2 weeks, it is referred to as major depression. While everyone feels sad or low from time to time, a person suffering from major depression experiences symptoms that interfere with your ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy life. An episode can occur only once in a person’s lifetime, but more often, a person has several episodes.

It's estimated that about 350 million people worldwide live with depression. Many often do not want to admit it. Shame and a sense of personal inadequacy are still attached to it. Many cases of depression can be traced to specific life events and are successfully treated through a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

What Causes Depression?

Although it's the subject of much research, the medical cause of depression continues to remains uncertain. Depressive illnesses are disorders of the brain. Brain-imaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have shown that the brains of people who have depression look different than those of people without depression. The parts of the brain involved in mood, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior appear different. But these images do not reveal why the depression has occurred. They also cannot be used to diagnose depression

Researchers believe a combination of factors most likely cause a person to suffer from depression. These include:

Signs and Symptoms

People with depressive illnesses do not all experience the same symptoms. The severity, frequency, and duration of symptoms vary depending on the individual and his or her particular illness.

Signs and symptoms include:

Diagnosing Depression

The first step to getting appropriate treatment is to visit a doctor or mental health specialist. Certain medications, and some medical conditions such as viruses or a thyroid disorder, can cause the same symptoms as depression. A doctor can rule out these possibilities by doing a physical exam, interview, and lab tests. If the doctor can find no medical condition that may be causing the depression, the next step is a psychological evaluation.

There isn't a single lab or imaging test that identifies someone as suffering from depression. Brain scans have shown changes that occur in a depressed person's brain, but they are not used as a diagnostic tool. The diagnosis is based primarily on patients' descriptions of their symptoms. Sometimes depression is so readily apparent that the diagnosis is relatively straightforward and unambiguous. However, in many cases people complain about general feelings of sadness or fatigue for no specific reason, yet may have clinically-significant depression and need treatment.

Depression Treatment

The most common treatments are medication and psychotherapy. Medication includes antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), tricyclics, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). While several types of psychotherapy can help people with depression, the most common include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and interpersonal therapy (IPT). For cases in which medication and/or psychotherapy does not help, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be useful. Before ECT begins, a patient is put under brief anesthesia and given a muscle relaxant. He or she sleeps through the treatment and does not consciously feel the electrical impulses. ECT may cause some side effects, including confusion, disorientation, and memory loss. Other more recently introduced types of brain stimulation treatments include vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). VNS involves surgical procedure where pacemaker-like device is implanted in the body. The device is attached to a stimulating wire that is threaded along a nerve called the vagus nerve. The device sends out pulses of electricity into the vagus nerve which transmits them to the brain where it connects to areas believed to be involved in regulating mood. rTMS is a non-invasive , nonconvulsive treatment and uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells. While adverse effects are mild, most serious adverse effects is the induction of a seizure.

The tDCS-LTE™ therapy is now approved in the European Union for the treatment of depression. It is a non-invasive and non-drug option for patients suffering from depression. If you are interested in trying tDCS-LTE™ for yourself or a loved one, please contact us online and a Soterix Medical representative will be in touch with you.

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