Let’s talk about depression this World Health Day: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, VPS Rockland Hospital
Mental health is increasingly becoming a concern with more and more people getting impacted and problems like depression increasingly becoming more prevalent. Depressive people experience feelings of despair, worthlessness and sadness. Typically, there are suicidal tendencies and thoughts. This may be associated with or without anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.
Other symptoms include staying alone, spontaneous crying, tearful eyes, uneven sleeping patterns, increased or decreased appetite, shabby look, poor self-hygiene and loss of self-control. Violence may be sometimes be an associated feature. Loss of libido is also common and people suffering from depression usually like to stay quiet. Problems of severe anorexia and poor self-keeping is found in extreme cases.
“Depression is more of a lifestyle disease these days with stress increasingly becoming a part of everyday life. This is one of the modalities of the fast life that we are living where there is competition at every step. The best ways to avoid this involves sight changes in everyday lifestyle to accommodate positive activities like exercise, meditation, yoga, sports and a good work-life balance. This when supported by a positive circle of individuals comprising of friends and family members can help the individual to come out of the problem and start living a healthy and happy life again”, said Dr Sanjay Gupta, Senior consultant Physician, VPS Rockland Hospital.
Causes:
Some of the common triggers for depression include:
Ø Loss of a loved one
Ø Loss of job or huge financial loss
Ø Extreme work stress leading to insomnia
Ø Stress at work
Ø Disharmony at home
Ø Marital discord
Ø Neurotransmitter imbalance
Ø Iatrogenic
Ø Medications
Ø Idiopathic
Ø Natural Calamities
Ø Chronic Diseases like Chronic Kidney Disease/Cancer/Liver failure/HIV
Ø Physical & Sexual Abuse / Rape
Ø Family Separation
Management:
The treatment for depression can be pharmacological & non-pharmacological. Pharmacological involves the use of medications while non-pharmacological involves concepts like psychotherapy, counselling, and cognitive behavioural therapy where the behaviour is analyzed to understand the main causes of the problem and is giving a definitive therapy accordingly.
Non Pharmacological treatments include:
Ø Psychotherapy: This involves understanding the main causes of the problem and giving a definitive therapy. Talking to a trained therapist is one of the best treatments
Ø Counseling: This involves sitting with the patient and his family members or subjects who the patient thinks are the main cause for his/her problem causing depression
Ø Cognitive behavioral therapy: This helps the patient to see how their behavior and the way they think about things plays a role in depression. The therapist will help change some of these unhealthy patterns
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