The History Of Treatment Of Depression

Not everything has to be cured by modern-day technology, such as better antidepressants, sometimes the “old-fashion” way is a lot better and more effective.

Because depression is portrayed so vastly differently across the globe and in different humans, there are different approaches to the causes for this mood disorder. Unlike a flu, for example, that has specific visible symptoms, such as a fever, vomiting, and feeling exhausted, depression essentially does not have any visible symptoms that

Dr. Mercola says, “The use of antidepressant drugs—medicine’s answer for depression—doubled in just one decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005”(Antidepressant Drugs Do Not work.. ). This quote is showing that depression is becoming a common psychological illness. That means more drugs are being prescribed everyday. The antidepressant drug industry is getting rich off of pills that cause nausea, weight gain, anxiety, and insomnia. Even with all of those side effects we still feel sad and lonely. Nevertheless, people still are pouring their money into these infective

The History of treatment of depression is hard to link to a specific date. In the early years of treatment there was almost no distinction between mental disorders as compared to our knowledge of them now. Depression was not recognized as a unique problem and for that reason it didn’t receive unique treatment. Depression has been around as far as humans have, even before treatment was thought to even help patients. Depression has been a big part of mental health in the medical field. Depression now is categorized into a few different categories, while before it was more of a generalized disorder and was thought to be of only one kind. The way that we look at depression now is still under developed to the point that common knowledge of mental health is still low compared to how it should be at this point in time with our technology.Although our common knowledge of depression have greatly improved from what our knowledge of depression was in the 18th - 20th century, we still have a long way to go to reach a stable point in mental health. Many doctors have gone into the mental specialization field of medicine and have done many special and important contributions to the field. Research in the mental has come a long way and has improved to the point, were more morale is taken in account with cases. Treatment now is more developed and is a bit more complex then it was in the 17th – 20th century. Treatment in that time was more simple and straight to the point. Apart from it

Mental illness has been around since the beginning of recorded history. Mental illness was not recognized and those suffering were labeled as retarded. “Terms

In Gary Greenberg's Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease, he takes an in depth look at the history behind depression, antidepressants, and how we have come to recognize and accept depression as a biochemical disease. When analyzing this book we can see that depression itself, whether it be a disease that is biochemically manifested or not, is deeply integrated into our society in a variety of ways as many aspects of society associated with depression have specific functions that are integral for society to function properly as a whole.

Depression used to be diagnosed as melancholia..Between 1938 and 1955.Several reports showed that the commonness of depression in the general population was below 1%. “In the mid-1990s,the lifetime risk for depression was estimated as 3% to 4% worldwide.”(2) To control depression,the use of antidepressioants has grown rapidly since the late 1950s.By the late 1990s nearly 1.77 million people were taking one or even mulitiple antidepressioants for depression or diesases assumedly on the depressive spectrum.It has been suggested that in spite of the large uses of antidepressioants have been undertreated.

The history of depression reaches back into ancient Mesopotamian times depression was first labeled "melancholia" (Nemade, Reiss & Dombeck, 2007). During this period, people were certain that melancholia was caused by supernatural possession. Thus, the initial documented perception of depression was that is was a spiritual or mental sickness, and not a somatic one (Nemade, et al., 2007). The view of depression as a spiritual or mental illness stayed this way until the 19th and 20th century (Nemade et al., 2007). In 1950, scientists started looking for more organic causes of depression and divided the disorder into subtypes based on what was believed to have caused the disorder (Nemade et al., 2007).

In general, depression can be effectively treated, even in some of the most severe cases. However, the earlier depression treatments begin, the more effective they are.

The disorder I will be focusing on is Major Depressive Disorder. Major Depressive Disorder, also known as major depression, has been a continuing health problem for human beings throughout the course of history. According to documents written by philosophers, healers and other writers, depression has had a deep-rooted existence dating as far back as the second millennium B.C. At this time, Major Depressive Disorder was referred to as “melancholia.” The earliest documentation of melancholia appeared in the ancient texts of the Mesopotamian population. It was then believed that all mental illness was a result of demonic possession and could only be healed by the power of a priest. It was not until much later that the first historical understanding of depression as a spiritual or mental illness was recorded. According to historical documentation, populations such as the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Egyptian civilizations had controversial thinking about the causes of melancholia, or depression. The Chinese and Egyptian cultures believed that their mentally ill were possessed by demons and practiced exorcism techniques such as beatings, restraint and starvation. Unlike the Chinese and Egyptians, the Romans and Greeks contributed mental illness and depression to biological and psychological disease. Treatment techniques such as gymnastics, massage, special diets, music, baths and herbal

Concerning the treatment of depression, the figures are of such proportions that details can never be over-looked or neglected. Consider the following. Depressive disorders are amongst the most frequent psychiatric diseases in the Western World, with prevalence numbers between 9% and 18%. According to a 1997 survey (Jindal & Thase, 2003) of the most common reasons for patient visits to family physicians in the United States, depression and anxiety ranked 11th and 17th respectively. The seriousness of this disorder, besides prevalence but in terms of affect, cannot be overstated. Beck (1967) identified five cardinal symptoms of

Depression is something that has been seen all throughout history. Biblical figures such as Job, King Saul, and even Kind David expressed signs of depression throughout their writings. An example of this is seen when Job cries out, “"Let the day perish on which I was to be born, and the night which said, 'A boy is conceived” (3:3). An exhaustive list of famous individuals can be found on Wikipedia whom have suffered from major depressive disorder throughout history including names such as Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Robin Williams, Janet Jackson, and Princess Diana. Prior to the 20th century depression was seen as more of a mood disorder rather than an actual illness.

Freud (1917) explained depression as a response to loss. This could be either real loss, such as a loss of a family member, or a symbolic loss, such as failure to achieve an important goal. Freud suggested that loss caused a person to have a weakened ego which resulted in self hate and self destruction. This was the first time people started believing that depression was an illness that was caused because of an event happening to that individual, rather than it being some sort of brain disorder or physical disease. During the 19th and 20th centuries treatments involved lobotomy. Lobotomies were often ineffective, and caused people to have personality changes, unable to make decisions, and poor judgment and sometimes led to comas and death. In the 1950s and 1960s knowledge of the brain and brain chemistry increased which resulted in believing depression was caused by a change in the environment, such as the death of a family member. This is why the visualisation is so relevant. Any one can experience some sort of loss. Currently it is accepted that depression is caused by biological, psychological and social factors and that all approaches to treatment have an important role to play. Today there are a number of treatments for depression (NHS, 2012). These include talking therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, interpersonal therapy and counselling, as well as medical treatments such as

Depression has been a part of our lives for as long as humans have been on the earth. Everyone has had days when nothing was going right. But it all depends with an individual how to handled this adversity and how depressed that person becomes.

One of the most common treatments for depression is medication. Another common treatment for depression is therapy or counseling. Specific treatment for depression will be determined by your physician based on age, overall health, and medical history, extent of the condition, type of mood disorder, tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies and expectations for the course of the condition. Many people with mental illness do not believe in taking medication so therapy proves to be a better treatment for these individuals. There are other forms of holistic treatment and even herbal therapy has been helpful for the treatment of depression. Antidepressant medications, especially when combined with psychotherapy has shown to be very effective in the treatment of