Antidepressants May Not Help Moderate Depression
by Alan Muir
According to the Archives of General Psychiatry, one in five people get the recommended treatment for depression. Those that do get treatment may find antidepressants do not boost their mood or relieve their symptoms. Antidepressants can help severly depressed individuals, but may not relieve mild to moderate depression.
With the vast amount of research on depression, it may seem suprising that many individuals still suffer. Some researchers believe antidepressants are missing the neurological target. New research presented at the 2009 Neuroscience Conference suggests that depression may not be linked to stress or diminished levels of neurotransmitters (serotonin, etc.).
These researchers believe there are different kinds of depression, as people have different types of brain activity. These suggestions are only preliminary findings, but researchers suggest varied forms of antidepressants should be developed to tackle different types of depression. The findings are based on studies among severly depressed rats, which have similar behavioral and physiological abnormalities.
Antidepressants are often tested based on the notion that stress causes depression. With this idea in mind, antidepressants have been treating stress, not depression. The second common thought is that antidepressants should increase neurotransmitters in the brain; yet, this concept does not focus on the development and function of neurons in the brain.
These findings suggest antidepressants fail to help many depressed individuals, because they are aimed at the wrong factors. Researchers hope to turn their focus on developing more antidepressants to treat varied forms of depression.
Recently, more light has been shed on why treatments may be ineffective, as researchers have found 5-HT autoreceptors in the brain may impact the brain’s response to treatments designed to increae serotonin levels. Individuals with high levels of 5-HT autoreceptors did not respond as easily to the treatment. When these autoreceptor levels were low, antidepressants were more effective.
There are various forms of therapy that can treat mild to moderate depression, including simple concepts regarding stress management, exercise, balanced “whole food” diet, and restoring hormone and nutritional deficiencies. For those that find lifestyle modifications and stress management are not enough, researchers suggest conventional treatments may still offer some relief. Even so, it is best to use antidepressants as the last option in treating mild to moderate depression.
References
Fournier JC, DeRubeis RJ, Hollon SD, Dimidjian S, et al. Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity. JAMA. 2010;303(1):47-53.
Gonzalez HM, Vega WA, Williams DR, Tarrag W, et al. Depression care in the United States: Too little for too few. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(1):37-46.
Richardson-Jones JW, Craige CP, Guiard BP, Stephen A, et al. 5-HT autoreceptor levels determine vulnerability to stress and response to antidepressants. Neuron. 2010; 65(1):40-52.
