Many of us have had close contact with depression, either as a sufferer or through having a close friend or relative who has been a sufferer. After all, about one million Australians suffer from depression each year, and about one in five Australians will experience a bout of depression during their lifetime.

Depression affects all aspects of life and makes it difficult for people to go about their normal activities. Attitudes towards depression and the nature of the symptoms means that people may not seek help. However, getting help sooner rather than later may prevent the symptoms becoming worse and enable a faster recovery.

Treatments

Many treatments are used for depression, but most of them fall into two main groups: antidepressant medications and psychological treatments. In addition, there are many other strategies that people can use to help manage their condition.

Antidepressant medications

People with moderate and severe depression often have lower levels of some of the chemicals found in the brain. These chemicals include serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine. Prescription antidepressant medicines reduce the symptoms of depression by restoring the imbalance of these chemicals.

Depression makes normal activities difficult

Prescription antidepressants fall into several groups, the most common of which are SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and tricyclic antidepressants.

Many herbal and natural medicines have been used over the years for depression, but most have not undergone thorough testing. An exception is the herb St John’s wort, which may help with mild to moderate depression.

Psychological treatments

Some forms of counselling (known as psychological treatments or talking therapies) help people learn to think more positively, to have better relationships with others, and to cope better with the stresses in their lives. Changing people’s thinking and behaviour helps them to recover more quickly and helps to prevent their depression recurring.

While some GPs have training in psychological treatments, many do not. Therefore, psychological treatments often require a referral to a health professional who specialises in mental health conditions.

Most people benefit from using a combination of
treatments and strategies

Other strategies

Learning more about depression and how to manage it, undertaking regular exercise, and using relaxation techniques to manage stress are examples of other strategies that are known to be beneficial for people with depression.

Eating a healthy diet, maintaining normal routines, doing enjoyable activities, and keeping in contact with work, family and friends also help people to get back on the road to recovery.

Choosing a treatment or combination of treatments

While some people can overcome their depression by using only one type of treatment, most benefit from using a combination of treatments and other strategies.

Regular gentle exercise is helpful

The best treatment or combination of treatments will vary from person to person. Nevertheless, some combinations have been found to work better than others for some forms of depression.

For example, people with mild depression tend to benefit more from learning about depression and undertaking psychological treatment than from taking an antidepressant medication.

In contrast, people with moderate and severe depression often need an antidepressant medication in order to overcome their symptoms. However, they often obtain the greatest benefit when they combine their medication with learning about their condition and undertaking psychological treatment.

Working out the best combination of treatments may be a process of trial and error. Finding out about the various treatments available may help a person find a combination that works for them sooner. See our articles ‘A guide to using antidepressants’ and ‘Non-drug treatments to antidepressants’ for more information.