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Major Depressive Disorder Essay

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Major Depressive Disorder or MDD is a very common clinical condition that affects millions of people every year. According to the Agency for Health Care Policy & Research, “ depression is under diagnosed & untreated by most medical doctors, despite the fact that it can almost always be treated successfully.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV); A person who suffers from this disorder must have a depressed mood, or have lost interest in things that would have normally brought them pleasure; for a minimum of two weeks. This must be different then the person’s normal behaviors, and it may not be caused by a general medical condition. (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) …show more content…

The treatments for depression can be antidepressants, psychotherapy, or a combination of both.
Treatments using anti-depressants is well documented, but there are very few studies documenting only the use of psychotherapy. However, in one study done using the Cognitive–behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) as a maintenance treatment, the overall findings show that psychotherapy in itself can be successful. “ There were 82 patients who were treated with CBASP long term. Patients were chosen at random to reduce their treatment to monthly or to an observational status. The patients, only treated monthly with CBASP, showed a smaller amount of reoccurring symptoms then the patients in the observational status. These findings support the use of only CBASP as a maintenance treatment for depression.” (Klein, 2004)
Psychotherapy itself comes in many forms, and is based on many different psychological models. Adlerian therapy on the growth model, Gestalt therapy integrates the body and mind, psychoanalytic therapy focuses on the first six years of life, Reality therapy teaches people to control the world around them, and Rational and Cognitive therapy, deals with the cognitive and moral state of the patient. Any one of these could be chosen as a treatment option, but for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on a form of Humanistic Therapy.
Humanistic Therapy is a process by which an individual is

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