Major Depressive Disorder
Depression Treatment & Counseling
At Restorative Brain Center, we believe depression isn’t something you should have to deal with and manage for the rest of your life. Our treatments for depression work together with our counseling services to help you achieve mental health restoration and regain a sense of well-being.
Effective Depression Treatment Plans
To combat this condition, antidepressants are often prescribed based on an individual’s specific symptoms. Counseling is often paired with medication to ensure the most effective treatment plan for the patient. Using the right treatment options can allow an individual experiencing depression to live symptom-free. However, antidepressants don’t work for everyone, so we provide alternative therapies for depression such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Our depression counseling services allow each patient to work one-on-one with a licensed therapist or in a group therapy setting to uncover the source of their unhappiness, which may be rooted in early childhood and adolescence experiences but can also be shaped by current relationships, the work or home environment or even the loss of a loved one. Healing comes from forming a deeper understanding of how these factors influence mood, behavior and a general sense of well being. From there, strategies can be developed that allow patients to cope better with the internal and external factors that were causing them to feel depressed.
A Promising New Treatment for Depression
Major depressive disorder, or depression, presents itself differently across the population. While symptoms can range from loss of appetite to fatigue, the overarching symptoms of those suffering from depression include the inability to experience pleasure and a persistent state of sadness. If this condition persists, it can affects a person’s ability to carry on with daily activities, including those they had previously enjoyed.
According to a study conducted by the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality in 2016, about 16 million American adults (6.7% of the adult US population) are affected by depression in any given year. Without treatment, depression is debilitating to the daily lives of those suffering from this disorder, and if severe, it can lead to suicide.
While scientists have not yet discovered what causes depression, research in neuroscience suggests that an imbalance in the brain’s neurotransmitters is a factor. Neurotransmitters work to send chemical signals between brain cells and when they stop functioning correctly, it can lead to the development of this disorder. A person’s tendency to become depressed may also be impacted by genetics and past life events.
There is no known cure for depression, but new research and advancements in medical technology and medications are leading to more effective treatments. According to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) approximately 80% of patients treated for depression show improvement within four to six weeks of beginning a regime of counseling, medication or through alternative treatments such as TMS.
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s standard diagnosis manual (DSM-V), depression is diagnosed when a person is experiencing a persistent state of sadness or a loss of pleasure in activity as well as four or more of these symptoms during a 2-week period.
- Significant change in appetite (increase or decrease)
- Significant weight loss
- Significant weight gain
- Fatigue or loss of energy almost every day
- Decreased ability to concentrate or make decisions
- Agitation and restlessness
- Excessive sleepiness or insomnia
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive and inappropriate guilt almost every day
- Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide