A review of advances in depression treatment has found that current therapy and medication treatments have made great strides – but that there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
The Lancet “seminar” review was published this week.
The study authors, all from the University of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, said that treating depression with antidepressant medications can be chiefly hit-and-miss.
"In actual practice, most patients need several sequential treatment steps to achieve remission," the authors concluded, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. "No fully satisfactory treatments for major depression are available.”
At the moment, 3 in 10 depressed patients are unable to find total relief even after trying several courses of antidepressant medications.
The researchers are looking ahead to a therapy called deep-brain stimulation, which is still waiting for FDA approval as a treatment for depression. They advised that regulators and psychiatrists familiarize themselves with the treatment, and observed that it could increase patients’ risk of suicide.
The study authors also noted that as diagnostic tools improve, new therapies will continue to emerge and evolve.
