Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Dr. Max GomezDepression is a huge problem in this country. In addition to being the major risk factor for suicide, it also causes tremendous disability, pain and suffering.
Dr. Patrick McGrath, New York State Psychiatric Institute: "People have trouble functioning, they're not there for their families, they're not able to work effectively, some get disabled from work. It causes a lot of loss of productivity and a lot of suffering."
Dennis Rivera, Depression Patient: "Oh when I was going through my depression, um, I was like lost, you know, I was confused, I used to wonder why-you know, I you know, I was suffering so much."
Fortunately, Dennis Rivera got help. A psychiatrist put him on an anti-depressant that seemed to stop working after a short while.
Dennis Rivera, Depression Patient: "I told him how I was feeling and he said, ‘Let's try something else.'"
Turns out that was the right approach. A pair of studies find that when a depressed patient doesn't fully recover on their first anti-depressant, changing to a different medication or adding a second medication to the original drug, nearly doubled the overall recovery rate.
Dr. Patrick McGrath, New York State Psychiatric Institute: "It didn't matter what the mechanism of action of the anti-depressant was, if you simply tried a second anti-depressant, among the ones we studied, it worked very well and it worked equally well, in this study."
Both the switch and the combination therapy proved safe, without excessive side effects or discomfort. The hard part was that any anti-depressant therapy takes patience and perseverance. Each medication or combination has to be tried for up to three months to give it a chance to work. But as Dennis will tell you, it's worth it.
Dennis Rivera, Depression Patient: "I'm feeling great you know, I've got a nice job, I work with the city, you know, my whole life has turned around, you know, a 180."
Doctors say treatments for depression work, but take time. The best treatment requires follow- ups, education and support.
