Effective Treatments for Adolescent Depression
Teenage depression is not just a medical disorder that is treated within a week of taking in prescription medicines. It is a serious illness that requires a combination of psychotherapy and drug therapy so that the symptoms will be alleviated. Here are the treatment therapies for a depressed teen to ensure recovery from that situation.
Medication Therapy
Medication therapy is the most rapid acting type of treatment for all types of depression, including teenage depression. This is a short-acting therapy, and improvement of the depressed teen will be seen in a few days time.
The most common medications used to treat depression in adolescents are fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft). These are FDA approved for teenagers since they have little side effects. However, all drugs carry with them side effects. Some side effects of these drugs are dry mouth, constipation, urinary retention, sedation, weight gain, insomnia, restlessness, nausea, and tension headaches. The dosage and frequency of drug intake should be carefully monitored to minimize these side effects.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy helps teenagers with depression understand the behaviors, emotions, and ideas that contribute to your illness. It helps you recognize the life problems and events that are behind your depression, and which aspects of these problems that you will be able to solve. This will also enable you to regain a sense of control and pleasure in your life, while learning different coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills.
There are different kinds of psychotherapy. This can be given in different formats. Individual therapy would only concern the patient and the therapist. A group therapy would include two or more patients in single therapy at the same time. Patients will be able to share with each other their experiences and their ideas on how to deal with their depression. Family therapy includes the patient’s family during the therapy.
Psychodynamic therapy is based on the assumption that a person is depressed because of an unresolved unconscious conflict that happened during childhood. Interpersonal therapy is focused on the behavior and interaction that a depressed teen exhibits towards the family and friends. This aims to improve the communication skills of a depressed teen and increase self-esteem. Both psychodynamic and interpersonal therapy help teens resolve depression that were caused by grief, conflicts with relationships and role transitions. Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to help teens in establishing positive thinking and change incorrect perceptions. This is highly recommended for patients who think and behave in ways that can trigger the depression and those who suffer from depression that eventually causes suffering, disability and interpersonal problems.
When attending a therapy, make sure that you attend all your scheduled appointments. This require your active participation, your time, effort and of course, your willingness to participate. When you don’t, then the therapy will just end up in a waste, not effective at all for you.
Combination of medical and psychotherapies are being preferred by physicians because depressed teens who undergo such have a faster recovery that those who only do a single therapy. Also, once a teen has recovered using the combination therapy, then there is lesser risk of having depression in the future.
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