Many people around the world experience the emotion of sadness from stress or trauma. However, some individuals experience a persistent feeling of sadness and desolation also known as depression or major depressive disorder (MDD). Other symptoms of depression can come along such as anhedonia, which is the lack of pleasure of daily activities. With depression, there is trouble doing daily tasks, impairing their ability to focus and cognitive skills. There has been a rapid increase of depression diagnosis from mild to severe depression among age groups. Although depression is spreading, it is becoming harder to treat; depending on how severe the patient's depression is. There are diverse types of therapies ranging from non-pharmaceutical therapies, biological therapies, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) therapy sessions. Although there are wide ranges of therapies patients can get, there have been many debates from researchers and doctors about which types of therapies are effective for their patients; ranging from mild to severe depression. Additionally, finding which types of therapy is effective long term instead of only helping the patients for a certain amount of time.
One way researchers have found effective treatment for depression is through lifestyle changes or humanistic therapy sessions. In the research article, “Regulating positive emotions: implications for promoting well-being in individuals with depression,” Rebecca L. Silton et al., proposed positive emotion regulation in patients who have depression. Experiencing positive emotions may help downregulate depressive symptoms such as anhedonia and promote societal well-being. Positive emotions are also known to improve sleep quality and lower levels of cortisol, which in turn decreases the levels of depression in individuals. Silton discusses two types of strategies that Silton discusses are savoring- based regulatory strategies and positive psychology to boost happiness and life satisfaction. Additionally, Silton discusses in the article that “positive reappraisal may be a key emotional regulation mechanism related to mindfulness meditation practice that reduces stress and depression symptoms” (Silton, 95). Maintaining positive emotions throughout your lifespan can also help alleviate symptoms of depression and produce hedonia. Some ways therapists use positive psychology to help those with depression are to do meditation, yoga, or increase exercise to regulate emotions and increase mindfulness.
Although positive emotions can go a long way for executive and cognitive functioning, this may not be effective for people who suffer from severe MDD and are suffering from suicidal ideations. Typically, biological therapy is helpful for people who are scaled toward more severe depression than mild depression, when non pharmaceutical therapy is not helping. Usually, patients with depression are treated with antidepressants such as SSRIs like Paxil and Prozac, however SSRIs take a longer time to show a change in depression levels, usually ranging from 3-6 weeks (Rooij, 129). Although antidepressants and humanistic therapy are helpful, there are other ways that we can treat patients with severe major depressive disorders.
Researchers and experimenters have been trying to find other processes to speed up significant decreases in depression levels on a neurophysiological approach. Through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other functional imaging, experimenters discovered that brain stimulation also contributes to decreasing depression levels and has been using them for the past two decades. As an illustration, a woman with severe depression was given a brain implant that delivered electric stimulation and it relieved some of her symptoms from her severe depressive disorder (Wnuk). To figure out which brain region to stimulate, they could use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and find that planting electric stimulation in the ventral striatum and the amygdala can alleviate depressive moods (Wnuk). Deep brain stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation, also known as neuromodulation, can target neural activity that provides a faster way to affect depressive symptoms. Other electric stimulation processes like tDCS can facilitate neural circuits that affect psychotic and mood disorders (Rooji, 129). In hindsight, brain stimulation using electric stimulation and coils may seem like an extremely invasive experiment, but it is not harmful for patients who are given the stimulation. Typically, individuals who go through TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), tDCS, or deep brain stimulation, have therapy once a week or even multiple times a week based on the severity of their depression. Yet, researchers are trying different strategies such as accelerated TMS, to help treat patients at a faster rate that some antidepressants would not be able to reach in a few months.
Conclusively, finding an effective way to treat patients with depression will be an ongoing experiment for the next few decades. Naturally, patients are accustomed to distinct types of therapy sessions based on the severity of their mental health, if the therapy is close to them, or how expensive several types of treatments are. Yet it is important to treat mental health, especially those with depression, to function in their daily lives without a constant mental burden weighing on them. Although some patients may have more extreme symptoms than others, depression needs to be treated from mild to severe depression and having a wide spectrum of therapies individuals can receive is helpful.
Works Cited
Rooij, S.J.H., Arulpragasam, A.R., McDonald W.M., Philip, N.S. (2023, May 22). Accelerated TMS- moving quickly into the future of depression treatment. Neuropsychopharmacology. 49, 128-137. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-023-01599-z
Silton R.L., Kahrilas I.J., Skymba H.V., Smith, J., Bryant F.B., Heller W. (2020). Regulating positive emotions: implications for promoting well-being in individuals with depression. American Psychological Association. Vol.20. No 1, 93-97. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000675
Wnuk, A. (2021, November 23). ICYMI: Personalized brain stimulation brings relief to patient with severe depression. Brainfacts.org. https://www.brainfacts.org/neuroscience-in-society/neuroscience-in-the-news/2021/icymi-personalized-brain-stimulation-brings-relief-to-patient-with-severe-depression-112321
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