10 Drug-Free Therapies for Depression
According
to the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D)
study, an unbiased investigation funded by the National Institute of
Mental Health, at standard doses of the most commonly used class of
antidepressants (SSRIs), only 30 percent of people with severe depression
achieve remission with the first medication prescribed. Switching to a
new drug — and it often takes twelve weeks to achieve an adequate
response to medication — is effective about 25 percent of the time. So
after 24 weeks (close to 6 months), only 55 percent of people with
severe depression will experience a remission of symptoms.
That isn’t exactly good news to me.
What about the other 45 percent?
Every day on Project Beyond Blue,
my depression community, I hear from someone who has unsuccessfully
tried 20, 30, or 40 different medication combinations and is hanging on to life by a very thin thread.
I know that desperation myself, which is why, in the last two years, I
have spent a lot of time and money exploring different alternative
therapies.
Here are 10 non-drug therapies for depression that have provided some relief to members in my community or to friends I know battling this beast. Even if you don’t have treatment-resistant depression,
they are good to know about and can be used in addition to taking
medication to build extra resiliency. Remember that I am just a
highly-opinionated (but well-researched) writer, not a doctor, so
consult with your physician before changing the course of your
treatment.
1. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
I can’t count on my fingers the number of people I know who have been saved by transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS). Former advertising executive Martha Rhodes certainly was. In her
riveting memoir, 3000 Pulses Later, she shares her journey back to
health with this new technology. TMS involves a non-invasive procedure
that stimulates nerve cells in the brain with short magnetic pulses. A
large electromagnetic coil is placed against the scalp which generates
focused pulses that pass through the skull and stimulate the cerebral
cortex of the brain, a region that regulates mood. The procedure was
approved by the FDA in 2008.
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