Depression: A Combination of Psychological, Social and Biological Factors - Essay Sample

Introduction

Depression is a long-term psychological disorder that is characterized by prolonged feelings of a low mood, melancholy, and an overall lack of interest in many things leading to deterrence to the daily functionalities and duties. It is a psychological disorder that springs from alterations to the biological activities and chemical composition of the brain. The disorder reflects a state of impaired mental and cognitive capacities owing to a combination of psychological, social, and biological causalities of distress. The prevalence of the depression disorder, which can only be discernible through a set of associative symptoms and diagnostic tests, leads to a call for informed intervention through treatment and therapeutic programs.

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Treatment for Depression Disorder

The impact of depression on the workability of the human body system can be mainly intervened through the employment of informed antidepressants via a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) approach. Other forms of treatment involve one or more therapies that are designed to help the diagnosed recover in terms of the functionality of the brain, such as through talks that can guide the response to stimuli and how lifestyles are pursued while diagnosed with depression. Key to note, these forms of treatment, which can be tailored toward addressing the impact of depression, have to be optimally adapted under the state of the patients to ensure a positive impact. Notably, there is a dire need for specialized skills to enable progressive recovery from this long-term psychological disorder that renders patients more vulnerable to other risks.

Such that, specialists such as Psychiatrists, emergency medical doctors, general practitioners (GP), and clinical psychologists have the mandate to prescribe, foster, and monitor the impact of a selected set of treatment programs on the progression of the disorder. Some of the medications that help in alleviating the effects of depression include antipsychotics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) (Molyneaux et al., 2018). Notably, another significantly influential medical procedure for containing the impacts of depression among the diagnosed is the electroconvulsive therapy (shock treatment) whereby mental illnesses are addressed by sending electric currents via the brain to trigger a seizure.

Therapeutic Approaches to Depression

Buhmann, Nordentoft, Ekstroem, Carlsson, and Mortensen (2016) postulate that therapies that are recommended for depression include the psychotherapy, behavioral therapy (BT), and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). These approaches are designed to routinely curb the manifestation of depression symptoms in the diagnosed through informed adjustments. For instance, psychotherapy deals with behavioral and mental disorders via therapeutic talks that aim to enable normalization of the brain and its functionality (Buhmann et al., 2016). Behavioral therapy (BT) is designed to foster a modification of the harmful behaviors that are linked to psychological distress. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) mainly focuses on enabling the adjustment of negative behaviors, emotional responses, and thoughts that closely relate to the development of psychological distress (Johnsen & Friborg, 2015).

Empirical Research on the Treatment for Depression

Analysis has been widely used to pave the way for analytical evaluation of the impacts of the various alternatives when it comes to curbing depression and its symptoms. Scholars empirically support the use of medication-assisted treatment and the multiple therapies in the context of addressing the depression disorder based on clinical experiments and evaluations of the various treatment procedures whenever adopted in real-life cases (David, Cristea, & Hofmann, 2018). Therefore, research is used in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to vet and inform the adoption of influential approaches to addressing the impact of disorders like depression. According to Johnsen and Friborg (2015), antidepressants are preferred owing to the capacity to reform the cognitive and mental abilities of the brain. These medications are mainly used to revamp the biological and chemical characteristics of the brain that impacts on the workability of the psychological system (Molyneaux et al., 2018).

According to Welch and colleagues (2018), therapies are also influential in matters curbing long-term psychological disorders such as depression, which calls for routine interventions. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is recommended for a more significant assortment of diagnostic cases. Abel, Hayes, Henley, and Kuyken (2016) insist that the effectiveness of the cognitive-behavioral therapy emanates from the capacity to address all the potential causalities of the disease by enhancing the appropriate modifications in the cognitive and mental systems as well as regarding the behavior. The essence of its functionality to curbing the progression of the depression is to control across all the potential causative agents with a focus on the social, biological, and psychological reasons for the mental distress development (David et al., 2018).

Comparing and Contrasting Antidepressants Medications and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Both the use of medications and treatments for depression are influential. They create a positive impact on the response of the brain to cognition and mentally-dependent to the daily duties. Therefore, they all add value to the lives of the diagnosed in terms of reducing the symptoms and the progress of the disorder (Buhmann et al., 2016). Notably, there is a significant difference between medications and therapeutics as ways of enhancing treatments for related disorders. Drugs such as antidepressants work faster and safely when appropriately prescribed due to the ability to counter the functionality of the various organs like the brain and organ systems (Johnsen & Friborg, 2015). They can be too costly due to the call for assistance from specialists. However, the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) through the use of antidepressants is more impactful and recommended for depression patients.

On the other hand, therapeutic procedures are long-term and can be differently offered depending on the level of awareness and engagement, and inclusion of the patients and their people (friends and families). Adherence to prescriptions is a shared requirement to enable the successful functioning of each of these approaches to addressing depression. Essential to note, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and therapeutics supplement each other (Abel et al., 2016). Therefore, they are all recommended for depression, mainly when informatively prescribed by skilled specialists.

References

Abel, A., Hayes, A. M., Henley, W., & Kuyken, W. (2016). Sudden gains in cognitive-behavior therapy for treatment-resistant depression: Processes of change. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 84(8), 726. Retrieved from: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9424a4ab-8fbe-4531-9702-d7d0da8205d7/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=Sudden%2Bgains%2Bin%2Bcognitive-behavior%2Btherapy%2Bfor%2Btreatment-resistant%2Bdepression.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

Buhmann, C. B., Nordentoft, M., Ekstroem, M., Carlsson, J., & Mortensen, E. L. (2016). The effect of flexible cognitive-behavioral therapy and medical treatment, including antidepressants on post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in traumatized refugees: a pragmatic randomized controlled clinical trial. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 208(3), 252-259. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1f19/531f0b899518376e0e1f95d524bacb2c4ab9.pdf

David, D., Cristea, I., & Hofmann, S. G. (2018). Why cognitive behavioral therapy is the current gold standard of psychotherapy. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 4. Retrieved from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00004

Johnsen, T. J., & Friborg, O. (2015). The effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy as an anti-depressive treatment is falling: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 141(4), 747. Retrieved from: http://uit.no/Content/418448/The%20effect%20of%20CBT%20is%20falling.pdf

Molyneaux, E., Telesia, L. A., Henshaw, C., Boath, E., Bradley, E., & Howard, L. M. (2018). Antidepressants for preventing postnatal depression. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (4). Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6494522/

Welch, E. S., Weigand, A., Hooker, J. E., Philip, N. S., Tyrka, A. R., Press, D. Z., & Carpenter, L. L. (2018). Feasibility of computerized cognitivebehavioral therapy combined with bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation for treatment of major depression. Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface. Retrieved from: http://www.tmslab.org/publications/850.pdf