What indications suggest medication should be considered for depression?
What indications suggest medication should be considered for depression?
Medication is appropriate as a treatment for depression when the history of the patient indicates a biological issue, says Dr Tom Paterson, a psychiatrist and the director of the Adelaide Clinic Community Service.
There are three main contributors to depression, the psychology or the way a patient thinks, the underlying biology and the world the patient lives in, he says.
“The treatment is to understand which bit is broken and address which bit is broken,” says Dr Paterson.
“If I get somebody who says they are depressed but is still playing football and loving it, they are still going to parties, I am not convinced that there is a biology leg in that person,” he says.
“I’m more going to be thinking, is this a psychology existential thing or are they unhappy in their job or relationship.”
The core symptom of depression is anhedonia, loss of interest in things a person enjoys, says Dr Paterson.
“So when someone goes away to a B&B … to be able to have a weekend away because they are feeling depressed and they spend the whole weekend in bed, cocooned, not enjoying any of it, that’s a person who’s life is now not functional.
“That’s a person who is being significantly disabled by their symptoms and I would be strongly suggesting that we use an anti-depressant there,” says Dr Paterson.
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