Your body and mind both need proper care when they’re struggling. Treatment is essential for working toward a healthier lifestyle, both mentally and physically. But, unfortunately, not everyone responds positively to the most common mental disorder treatments. Psychotherapy and TMS can both play a role.
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders around the world. It affects more than 250 million people. Since it affects such a large portion of the global population, there are many treatment options that have been developed over time. Some people have symptoms that don’t seem to be reduced by common treatment options. For example, not everyone responds well to antidepressants. The good news is that there are options specifically for treatment-resistant depression.
We’ll talk about what it means to have treatment-resistant depression. Then we’ll talk about how two therapies can help alleviate your treatment-resistant depression.
The basics of treatment-resistant depression
Major depressive disorder, or depression, is a mood disorder. It causes overwhelming negative thoughts and feelings.
The most common symptoms of depression are pervasive feelings of hopelessness and fatigue. These symptoms can affect your overall quality of life. It can interfere with your ability to carry out responsibilities. It can also be hard to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships. It’s a chronic disorder, but people often experience periods of symptoms. These times are known as episodes.
Treatment for depression can help you manage your symptoms on a daily basis. According to research from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 61% of U.S. adults who experienced depression episodes received treatment.
The first course of action for many depression diagnoses is antidepressants. The most common form of antidepressant is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. If you’ve completed at least two trials of antidepressants without reduced symptoms, your mental healthcare provider will likely diagnose you with treatment-resistant depression. It affects approximately 30% of people who have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
Psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression
Therapy is a common treatment for mental disorders. If you were diagnosed with major depressive disorder by a general practitioner, it’s possible that you were prescribed antidepressants as the only treatment option. It’s possible that the antidepressants aren’t effective in reducing your symptoms. That’s when you should consider adding psychotherapy. It can go a long way for treatment-resistant depression.
Psychotherapy works for many people struggling with their mental health. There are a variety of approaches that a therapist can try. A licensed clinical therapist will choose the proper therapy approach. They will look at your specific depression symptoms. They’ll also consider your triggers and long-term mental health goals.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help any type of depression, including treatment-resistant depression.
CBT is a therapy approach for treatment-resistant depression. It focuses on how your cognitive and behavioral patterns affect one another. You’ll learn how the patterns contribute to your depressive symptoms. The goal of CBT is to adjust your thoughts and behaviors to reduce negative emotions.
TMS therapy for treatment-resistant depression
Psychotherapy can help you gain skills to manage your depression on a day-to-day basis. But there’s a neurostimulation therapy for treatment-resistant depression as well. It targets the brain chemistry that contributes to your symptoms.
TMS, or transcranial magnetic stimulation, is a neurostimulation therapy technique. It involves pulses of magnetic energy. Those pulses are used to stimulate brain activity in underactive areas of the brain. The targeted areas can influence mood regulation.
TMS involves 36 sessions that are completed over the course of six weeks. The sessions are held five days a week. Each appointment lasts approximately 30 minutes.
The benefits of TMS therapy for treatment-resistant depression include:
- High success rates.
- Outpatient procedure.
- No anesthesia is required, so you can quickly return to activities.
- Side effects are mild and temporary.
The efficacy of TMS is proven by the high success rates by our past patients, including:
- 79% of patients experienced at least 25% reduced depression symptoms.
- 56% of patients had their depression symptoms reduced by 50%.
- 33% of patients no longer experience depression symptoms.
Active Path Mental Health can provide therapy options for treatment-resistant depression
When your depression symptoms aren’t being helped by antidepressants, it can feel frustrating. The good news is that you shouldn’t lose hope for progressing through your mental health journey. Options like psychotherapy and TMS therapy can still help treatment-resistant depression.
Antidepressants can still be taken alongside either TMS or psychotherapy. Your treatment-resistant depression care plan should be discussed with your provider.
We’re here to help you. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
