Living With Major Depression Assessment Answer

Answer :

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Good morning, depression is the common disorder resulting in poor quality of life and impaired functioning. Depression being the major contributor of disease burden and disability globally requires understanding of developmental course and common treatment approaches 

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DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE OF DEPRESSION

Depression mostly appear at childhood and young adulthood however it can also appear in later in life (Toenders et al., 2019).

There are certain factors associated with the reoccurrence of depression which decides the recovery rate and stable period.

These factors include age, treatments, family history and co-morbidity conditions (Kovacs et al., 2016). For example, younger individuals with anxiety disorders substantially have an increased risk for depressive disorders (Hausman et al., 2018).

In most of the cases, depression appears at the start of puberty. The highest rate of incidence appears in the 20’s however people can also suffer in late adulthood (Toenders et al., 2019). The developmental course of depression differs widely. It can last with a shorter time and with mild symptoms or for a longer period with severe symptoms although particular demarcation is not found. Along with symptoms the recovery course of depression is also varied. If the person is being in the depression phase for shorter period recovery is often quickly whereas on the other hand if the person has high severity symptoms lasting several months to years with the presence of anxiety and personality disorder than recovery may take much longer than expected.

There are certain predictors of the developmental course of depression in the domain of (Kovacs et al., 2016) 

1.Sociodemographic Characteristics: Age, sex, socioeconomic status, living arrangements

2. Clinical Features: Number of the episodes, the severity of the episodes, age at the time of the episode onset, and comorbid other conditions

3. Treatment Exposure: pharmacological treatment, presence or absence of psychological treatment, treatment adequacy.

4. Family history of depressive or mood disorder.

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COMMON TREATMENT APROACHES

Pharmacological treatment

Antidepressant drugs are effective in treating acute depressive episodes in adults. After remission pharmacological treatment should be continued for at least six months as the relapse risk is high. Effective dose provided in the acute treatment should be continues in continuation phase.

Tricyclic drugs for example, amitriptyline or imipramine along with serotonin reuptake inhibitor, monoamine oxide inhibitors and noradrenergic reuptake inhibitors (Grover et al., 2017).

Psychotherapy: psychotherapy is focused on identifying the problems, role transitions amd social isolations. It also addresses the social and interpersonal factors. Psychotherapy deals with conflicts and coping mechanism. (Renn & Areán, 2017). Following are the common psychotherapeutic approaches:

Psychodynamic therapy

Interpersonal therapy

Supportive counselling

Cognitive behavior therapy

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CONCLUSION

Depression is addressed by WHO as one of the leading causes of increased morbidity burden and higher rate of healthcare cost. Being recurrent in nature depression requires a life span approach for prevention and treatment. The developmental course of depression consists of remission phase and active phase. There are certain key factors influencing the depression development, progression and recovery and needs to be evaluated for formulating the suitable treatment approaches for individual.