Depression: Long Term Outlook

The Problem

Depression can cause a huge series of losses for a sufferer. Depression can cause the sufferer to feel that they have misplaced their own unique identity, subsumed by the disorder. They may feel that their credibility with friends and colleagues has been lost. Hopes may have been dashed and expectations gone unfulfilled. Intimate relationships will almost always be sorely tested, and confidence may drop to very low levels.

Left untreated, depression can lead to loss of job, a perceived inability to perform even simple tasks, and loss of all appetites. Extreme weight loss is not uncommon. Sufferers may lack the ability to focus, to remember properly and to follow simple reasoning. In the worst cases, depression can lead to death through suicide or substance abuse.

The Good News

The good news is that for perhaps the first time in history, depressed individuals are offered a true choice of treatments. A combination of newly developed drugs and cognitive-behavioral therapy represents an excellent hope for most sufferers. In the short term, mood-leveling and/or mood-improving drugs can give the sufferer their confidence and a sensation of normalcy. Other methods are then able to give lasting control over depression in the long term.

Relapse

Relapse in sufferers is only common if they have not undertaken a proper treatment program. A common mistake is for sufferers to believe themselves ‘cured’ after a few months on a drug such as Prozac. They stop taking the medication, and are surprised when symptoms reappear shortly afterwards.

The problem is that medication is not effective in the long term without extra therapy of some sort. In a study of patients who had undergone cognitive-behavioral therapy, only 40% had a relapse in the following six years. Compare this to the control group, of whom 90% relapsed in depression.

Many sufferers recognize that the key to avoiding a relapse is to look for ‘signposts’ that warn of an impending attack. For instance, a manic-depressive may recognize that their thoughts are beginning to move faster and faster. Some sufferers find it useful to ask a trusted friend to be on the alert as well. A sufferer of occasional depressive episodes may be grateful to be warned of their increasing pessimism. In both cases, the sufferer will know to keep themselves level by seeking medical help, or by applying therapeutic techniques that they have learned.