Member-only story
Mental Health | Depression
Roughly Half of Depression Diagnoses Are Treatment-Resistant
A recent study highlights the need for alternative options for depression treatment.
In 2019 and 2020, I slid into the worst depression I’ve ever experienced. I had difficulty concentrating, my mind and body felt like they were working in slow motion, and both my energy and motivation completely bottomed out. It was like putting your foot down on the gas pedal of a car and having nothing happen because the gas tank was completely empty.
It took several rounds of trying different combinations of antidepressants before I began to improve. And that process was excruciating. We’d ramp up the dose of a new medicine over several weeks, wait several weeks to see if there was improvement, then ramp down the dose over several weeks and repeat. It was like trying to fill that gas tank up using an eyedropper.
I had what’s known as treatment-resistant depression. It’s when a patient’s depression isn’t managed effectively after trying at least two different antidepressant treatments.
According to a recent study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, 48% of patients with depression could be classified as being treatment-resistant, with 37% having tried four…
