According to experts in Psychiatry, the diagnosis of depression is made on the basis of its symptoms, and its treatment is decided on the basis of its causes, mainly, without forgetting the symptomatic profile.
Diagnosis and treatment of depression
The diagnosis of depression is made on the basis of its symptoms, it is the function of the psychiatrist to discriminate what type of depression it is.
The treatment of depression is decided mainly on the basis of the causes, that is to say, it would be biopsychosocial.
- If the biological aspect predominates, antidepressants will have greater weight. These act by regulating the levels of serotonin, noradrenaline and/or dopamine (monoamines). There are several types of antidepressants that act on one or more of these substances. Whether to give one antidepressant or another will depend on the symptoms presented, although there are tests to try to find out which monoamines are most altered. They are not conclusive and it is the symptomatology that is the main guide for the psychiatrist.
- If it is due to a personality disorder, psychotherapy will become more relevant. This is indicated when the personality factors are the fundamental ones at the time of evaluating the causes. Besides the new generation psychotherapy, there are several types: interpersonal cognitive-behavioral, cognitive analytical, psychodramatic. It is up to the psychiatrist or clinical psychologist to decide which one the patient needs. In the cases in which it is a medical disease or effect of substances the treatment will be the one that corresponds to these pictures. If, due to their nature, improvement cannot be obtained or is partial, antidepressants help to mitigate the symptoms (logically, total disappearance is not possible).
- If it is due to social factors, an attempt should be made to modify them and, if this is not feasible, to help the patient to cope with them better through psychotherapy.
Are there depressive people?
Depressive Personality Disorder is not in the international classifications, although it is true that there are personalities in which sadness, apathy, pessimism about the future, lack of energy, excessive concern about everything, etc. predominate.
Whether these ways of being have to be treated or not depends on the intensity of the described traits. In any case, if it requires treatment it would be psychotherapeutic since it is not a disease that occurs in a previously healthy person but “a way of being”.