Pro Pharmacological Treatment

Kiyo Keanini
November 11, 2010
Pd. 4

Risky Business Impromptu Exam: Pro Pharmacological Treatment

Major Depression, symptoms: depressed mood most of the day, nearly everyday; diminished pleasure in all, or almost all activities; significant weight loss or weight gain; excessive or inappropriate feelings of worthlessness or guilt; suicide attempt, or recurrent thoughts of death… Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, symptoms: She may be persistently irritable or angry, and her mood may change frequently. She may also feel fatigued, socially withdrawn, overwhelmed, unable to concentrate, or out of control. The symptoms can be accompanied by thoughts of suicide… Bipolar Disorder, symptoms: cycling moods of depression and mania-irrational elation, frenzied activity, excitability, or anger-over a period of at least a year. Excessive energy, poor judgment in social or school situations, and optimism and self-confidence inappropriate to the circumstances, suicide attempt… describes in a first-person account of Dr. Maureen Empfields(a assistant clinical professor), book called Understanding Teenage Depression. Think about if you had these symptoms, wouldn’t you want the most quick, effective cure. Well this cure is called pharmacological treatment. Anti-depressents and SSRIs are effective medication that treat depression, while therapy is not as quickly effective.

Of course, antidepressants are a type of medication that improve most emotional and physical symptoms of depression. For example they help improve mood and hopeless thoughts . A lot of physical symptoms like fatigue and insomnia and also anxiety. About two out of every three, 70%, of people dealing with depression find the antidepressants effective. They were developed as a safer way to treat depression with fewer side effects and a less chance of death when overdosed. Although they can be effective, there is a high risk when you stop taking them.

In addition, another type of pharmacological treatment that can be effective is, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. This drug is a little more dangerous than anti-depressants but still easy to prescribe safely and are effective. Dr. Empfield describes the severity of depression and the effects and effectiveness of pharmacological treatments and mentions that they do need 4-6 weeks to see results. She also says they may or may not work the same way in most teenagers and for some might not work but they do not get worse and the drugs are worth the effort involved in trying them.

To conclude, therapy is a slow process and some therapist, such as psychiatrists eventually end up prescribing medication. Though some therapy can treat depression alone, most are high suggested to be treated along with medication. It helps the to speed up the process of recovery but therapy is still very long and also takes a lot of understanding and accepting form not only the teenager but also the parents.

There are many precautions taken with certain medications but they are also found to be very effective and a faster then most other solutions. Most times when depression is at its worse is the best for pharmacological treatment. The effects of depression on teenagers really takes a toll out of them and in most cases they are willing to try the medication regardless of the side effects. While a lot of people say medication can be dangerous, all medication has some sort of side effect and after having these symptoms and side effects pharmacological treatment sounds a lot better than suicide.