Medical Questions » Depression Questions » Question No. 250
| Question: | What is the best treatment for depression? Should 1 keep taking drugs all the time? |
| Answer: | Depression may be due to an imbalance of chemicals that normally occur in the brain to control mood, and it is necessary for doctors to alter this balance, by giving medications that can control the production or activity of the depressing chemicals.
The worst problem with untreated depression is suicide, and this can be seen as a desperate plea for help in many people. The disease may not be detected or treated until a radical attempt to end life has occurred.
Medication and counselling by a general practitioner or psychiatrist will control the vast majority of cases.
The other form of treatment used is shock therapy. This has been surrounded by some controversy in the past, but is a very safe and often very effective method of giving relief to patients with severe chronic depression.
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