Depression Treatment Beyond Antidepressant Prescriptions

Prescription medications such as Zoloft and Prozac have been the most commonly used treatments for depression. After over 50 years of studies on the subject, there seems to be more effective treatments on the way for patients who are suffering from the mental illness.

Antidepressants are used to help treat depression because they either release or block three neurotransmitters that are responsible for depression symptoms: dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. These neurotransmitters are supposed to carry signals between brain cells and if they aren't functioning properly, which could lead to depression symptoms.

The authors of this new study, which is published in the journal Current Psychiatry, are Murali Rao, M.D., and Julie M. Alderson, D.O. They've reported that new treatments such as other prescription medication, electrical and magnetic stimulation of the brain, and long-term cognitive behavioral therapy for stress management could soon be available and practiced.

The most recent statistical analysis of antidepressant use by patients is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in which they focused on subjects from 2005-2008. They reported that 11 percent of Americans over the age of 12 take antidepressant medications, but only about 33% of severely depressed people actually take the medication. Rao and Alderson's study mentioned that the current prescription antidepressants--Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil--only succeed in fewer than half of the patients that take them. As a result, new depression theories have emerged and focused on neuron density in regions of the brain where depression can originate.

Because chronic stress is a leading cause of depression, studies of the brain are essential because the stress can create psychological changes. Rao and Alderson studied biomarkers in the brain that can help indicate signs of depression. These molecules include monoamine regulators, proinflammatory cytokines (as well as other inflammatory mediators), mediators of glutaminergic activity as well as GABAergic activity, and regulators of neurogenesis.

The authors provide a full list of newer treatments in this EurekAlert! article.

The full-text article entitled "Dissecting Melancholia with Evidence-Based Biomarker Tools" can be found in Current Psychiatry.