{"id":507,"date":"2007-09-21T10:30:42","date_gmt":"2007-09-21T10:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html"},"modified":"2007-09-21T10:30:42","modified_gmt":"2007-09-21T10:30:42","slug":"dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are some excerpts from Dr. Duckworth’s article, “Ask the Doctor: Treatment-Resistant Depression,” that I found on NAMI’s website<\/a>. It provides an excellent overview of some steps that Beyond Blue<\/a> readers can take if you are among those who haven’t responded to treaments in the past. You can read the entire article by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is frustrating for all involved when someone does not respond to treatments for depression that work for most other people. But we can\u2019t accurately predict who will respond to a particular intervention, and some will be in the group called the “non-responders.” Calling them “non-responders” almost sounds like we are blaming them for not getting better, doesn\u2019t it? Let\u2019s not blame these people, but rather review some strategies to address treatment-resistant depression and discuss a novel treatment that has come down the pike.
\nWith clinical (or major) depression, about 20 percent to 30 percent of people do not respond to treatment. We don\u2019t know why; this is just the state of the field right now. The first thing I encourage people to do when they have not responded to treatment is to review the basics of their care, aside from medications. The foundations of self-care\u2014aerobic exercise, eliminating toxic stressors, building supportive relationships, getting enough rest, and a healthy diet<\/a>\u2014are essential. If your thoughts are persistently negative, give cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) a good trial<\/a> in addition to your medicines. If there is not a CBT practitioner in your area, “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy<\/a>,” by David Burns, M.D., is a classic guide with easy-to-read descriptions of CBT.<\/p>\n


\nMost studies show that combining talk therapy like CBT together with medications<\/a> produces a better result than either treatment alone. If your depression persists, think about other possible causes\u2014could you have a medical problem like hypothyroidism that could explain it? This condition can be detected with a simple blood test. Could other medications you take be contributing to your depression? This is a common problem with beta blockers for high blood pressure, and also with some treatments for Parkinson\u2019s disease. Alcohol can also complicate a depression picture, so attention to sobriety can be crucial.
\nThere are also many subtypes of depression. For example, people with bipolar depression often have atypical symptoms\u2014such as sleeping more and eating more\u2014and this is a challenge to treat. Seasonal depression in winter can add to the picture, and light therapy can be helpful for that. Depression with psychotic features typically responds very well to electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, <\/a>also known as shock therapy.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are some excerpts from Dr. Duckworth’s article, “Ask the Doctor: Treatment-Resistant Depression,” that I found on NAMI’s website. It provides an excellent overview of some steps that Beyond Blue readers can take if you are among those who haven’t responded to treaments in the past. You can read the entire article by clicking here.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here are some excerpts from Dr. Duckworth’s article, “Ask the Doctor: Treatment-Resistant Depression,” that I found on NAMI’s website. It provides an excellent overview of some steps that Beyond Blue readers can take if you are among those who haven’t responded to treaments in the past. You can read the entire article by clicking here.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-21T10:30:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression - Beyond Blue","og_description":"Here are some excerpts from Dr. Duckworth’s article, “Ask the Doctor: Treatment-Resistant Depression,” that I found on NAMI’s website. It provides an excellent overview of some steps that Beyond Blue readers can take if you are among those who haven’t responded to treaments in the past. You can read the entire article by clicking here.…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2007-09-21T10:30:42+00:00","author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html","name":"Dr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-09-21T10:30:42+00:00","dateModified":"2007-09-21T10:30:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/09\/dr-duckworth-on-treatmentresis.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dr. Duckworth on Treatment-Resistant Depression"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}