What You Can Do For Your Treatment-Resistant Depression

If you suffer from chronic depression that has been defined by your doctors as treatment-resistant, you may find yourself feeling as if there is not hope for you or for your mental health. This feeling of hopelessness, of course, is exacerbated by depression because a symptom of depression is hopelessness. This can feel like a vicious, never-ending cycle. However, the good news is that there is hope for people struggling with treatment-resistant depression. There are options available to help. These treatments are often reserved for those cases of depression that do not respond to first-line treatments (like antidepressants). Get to know some of the options available for your treatment-resistant depression. Then, you can talk to your doctor about giving them a try as soon as possible. 

Ketamine IV Infusion Therapy

One of the options available when you have depression that seems unresponsive to conventional treatments is ketamine IV infusion therapy. Ketamine is a very strong medication that is not used as a first-line treatment for depression because it is so strong and can have many side effects (like drowsiness.). 

This drug may be administered once as an IV infusion as a single treatment. However, oftentimes it is given as a serious of IV infusions over time. Of course, the doctors and nurses that are working with you on this infusion treatment will closely monitor you while you are receiving the treatment and will want to know of your progress in the days and weeks following the infusion. 

They will keep a close eye on you to determine if there are too many side effects to continue or if the ketamine IV infusion therapy is effective at helping with your depression. The good news is that many people with treatment-resistant depression find at least some relief from ketamine IV infusion therapy. 

ECT

ECT is short for electroconvulsive therapy. This treatment sounds scary but actually is not scary, nor is it painful. Patients are sedated through general anesthesia to receive ECT in today's medical field, so you will not feel or remember anything that happens during the treatment. 

During an ECT treatment, the doctor will send electrical stimulation into certain areas of the brain to stimulate them. The idea is essentially to jump-start certain areas and processes in the brain to improve symptoms of major depression (or depression associated with bipolar disorder). 

Knowing these available options for your treatment-resistant depression, you can get in touch with your doctor and determine if these options are right for you and your depression.