How To Treat Depression In Primary Care. Most depressed patients are treated in primary care. New research finds they continue to struggle to apply the treatment strategies used for other chronic illnesses.
Successful management of major depression in primary care involves the identification and treatment of all concurrent medical conditions psychotherapy and use of antidepressant medications. It is potentially a chronic illness with considerable morbidity and a high rate of relapse and recurrence. Psychological therapies are effective in the treatment of depression in primary care have longer lasting effects than drugs are preferred by the majority of patients and can be applied flexibly with different formats and across different target groups.
In particular all medical conditions and drugs that could be inducing the depression should be vigorously addressed.
The majority of patients with depression can be successfully treated by GPs. Successful management of major depression in primary care involves the identification and treatment of all concurrent medical conditions psychotherapy and use of antidepressant medications. Because almost 75 of patients who seek help for depression do so in primary care settings 3 substantial improvement in the quality of care for depression must address deficits in primary care. Management of clinical depression involves social psychological and medical approaches and interventions.