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Symptoms And Treatment Of Depression

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Nearly twenty million people suffer from depression in the United States each year. Depression is often overlooked and undetected by health care providers. Patients with depression experience a long-term, intense feeling of sadness that interferes with their daily lives. Other symptoms leading to a diagnosis include changes in appetite, problems falling and staying asleep, feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, decrease in energy, change in behavior and mood, and frequent thoughts of death and suicide. However, once identified and diagnosed, clinical depression can be treated. Treatment comes in traditional, pharmacological antidepressants as well as alternative, non-pharmacological methods. This paper will address and compare treatment options as well as examine depression from a Biblical worldview and in the nursing role. This is in hopes to better identify and treat depression in patients, better educate patients of treatment options, and help patients to lean on God as the ultimate healer. [Pathophysiology-etiology and manifestations]ADD Pharmacological treatment is done with antidepressant drug classes such as tricyclic’s, MAOI’s, SSRI’s, SNRI’s, and other drugs. Tricyclic antidepressants include drugs amitriptyline (Elavil), desipramine (Nopramin), doxepin (Sinequan), imipramine (Tofranil), and notriptyline (Aventyl). Common side effects are dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, headache, increased appetite and weight gain, nausea, unusual fatigue, unpleasant taste,

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