NIMH ’ s Inaccurate Depiction of Depression Treatments

One of my life-long battles is to ensure that people get the most objective, useful information they can about mental illness and its treatment. It’s painful to me when I come across a popular website that misrepresents these illnesses or their treatment. So you can imagine my surprise when I reviewed the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) page on depression recently. This is a super-important page to get right, because it often appears as the number one or two search result in Google. It starts off well enough, but then devolves when it gets to a section entitled “Treatment and Therapies.” Biases can be in your face, such as when a psychiatrist suggests, “Take antidepressants for depression — it’s the only thing that works!” Or biases can be more subtle, even unintended. Treatment of Depression I’ve written enough words to fill a (small) book about effective treatments for depression. I’ve talked about newer therapies that show promise, including ketamine and rTMS devices. The main takeaway from anything I’ve written is that a combination approach using both psychotherapy and antidepressant medication is usually best for most people. Even if you don’t “believe” in therapy or don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with you, time and time again the research is super clear about the effectiveness of this combined approach. If you want to start feeling better as s...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Depression Disorders General Policy and Advocacy Treatment Depression Treatment National Institute Of Mental Health Nimh Treatment For Depression Source Type: blogs