Why a new treatment to overcome depression?

A new option for

Treatment of depression in Houston

Mental illnesses affect many individuals worldwide. In the United States alone, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, approximately one adult in 5 experiences a mental illness each year. This represents 43.8 million people, or approximately 18% of the population in the United States. In Guatemala, it is estimated that approximately 27.8% of the population suffer from some type of mental disorder, with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder being the most prevalent.

Many patients with symptoms of depression and anxiety do not respond to regular pharmacological and psychotherapeutic therapies, and in Guatemala this is no exception. Psychiatric treatments have varied throughout history and with the advent of new techniques and procedures it is important to also seek better alternatives in some cases for recovery and a better prognostic value for patients seeking psychological help in Guatemala.

In recent years, the idea of ​​seeking focused treatments directed directly to regions of the brain that cause a specific stimulus to improve symptoms of depression has been gaining more relevance. Largely because according to current statistics, there are studies such as STAR-D (sequential alternatives to alleviate depression) which identified that up to 70% of patients who take antidepressants do not have a satisfactory response in many of the cases. Combination with psychotherapy can play a very important role and improve prognostic value, however this is not always the case as antidepressant drugs need to be taken for a long time and can potentially cause a range of unwanted side effects, which is why which abandonment of treatment is relatively frequent in many cases. Once the process of taking the drug has finished, it is sometimes necessary to prolong its use for more than a year, and even with a Persistent Depressive Disorder it is necessary to take the antidepressant indefinitely, making the process of weaning from the drugs themselves generate a problem more chronically.

As a new psychological help option in Guatemala, the depression clinic has an innovative team through a technique known as Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), which consists of providing electromagnetic pulses in different areas of the brain, thus generating a antidepressant response, which in many cases is more robust than standard pharmacological treatment, without the complications and side effects associated with said therapy. Being a psychiatrist in Guatemala, I consider it important to assess these new approaches since they represent a non-invasive, safe, effective and fast alternative in the treatment of depression and anxiety.

The idea of ​​working and incorporating new approaches is part of our commitment to provide an option that integrates aspects such as psychotherapy, psychoeducational plan, and family accompaniment, providing a new alternative for depression in Guatemala that generates safety and tranquility in patients.

The importance of psychotherapy in Mental Health

Historically, the relationship between psychotherapy and psychiatry has not always had a positive coexistence in terms of monitoring and treatment of mental health problems, although in recent years this difficulty has decreased. Nowadays, the accompaniment of both professions in a process that implies both a neurochemical imbalance and a cognitive difficulty in emotional fields and human dynamics is considered a comprehensive approach.

The treatment of mental disorders has evolved considerably in recent years with the advent of drugs and now new options in neuromodulation, such as Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Despite this, psychotherapy has always played a very important role in accompanying the patient with different emotional or adaptive pictures and in the same way it has been growing towards new techniques and forms of accompaniment both for the person who consults or their relatives.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), psychotherapy is “a collaborative treatment based on a relationship between an individual and a psychologist. The Psychologist provides support that allows the person to speak openly with someone who is objective, neutral and non-judgmental. Most therapies are individual, although some psychotherapists also work with couples, families, and groups.

Glen O. Gabbard is a well-known psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in both the medical and psychoanalytic communities, with multiple publications throughout his career and the author of several works focused on the psychotherapeutic and psychiatric approach from clinical practice. In a study published by the International Journal of Psychiatry in 2007, he stated that the swing of the pendulum towards a more biological direction in psychiatry has led to the marginalization of psychotherapy as one within the discipline of psychiatry as a whole. However, psychotherapy is a very important basic science with application in many clinical scenarios, playing a fundamental role in the prognostic value of the patient.

Both psychiatry and psychotherapy have a biological context that produces changes in the brain, and is therefore as important a companion as pharmacotherapy in planning comprehensive treatment.

In fact, the combination of medication, neuromodulation and psychotherapy have become a common method for psychiatric treatment in current clinical practice.

Psychotherapy therefore has an essential role in the context of clinical practice, for which psychological help and psychiatric monitoring can represent a better prognostic value when it comes to treatment and monitoring of conditions associated with mental health.

New options in the treatment of depression

Depression treatment

There are new Technologies for the Treatment of Depression of recent clinical application that have revolutionized the concepts of cerebral psychopathology and the type of therapeutic interventions for depression, giving an alternative to the components of anxiety and depression that have long been treated with drugs.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a new treatment for depression that has proven efficacy worldwide, it is a safe alternative that restores normal brain activity in a few weeks without the use of drugs and without side effects. adverse. Our clinic seeks to define a new paradigm of Mental Health in Guatemala in combination with psychological help to thus provide comprehensive and functional support with the best support from our clinic.

This new treatment is available in more than 600 clinical centers in the US including hospitals such as John Hopkins, UCLA, Stanford University and the Mayo Clinic. Today it is not necessary for a person to have to spend their entire lives suffering from the devastating symptoms of depression. Treatment of depression with rTMS has been the answer for many people who have not found relief from their symptoms with medication or psychotherapy. In Latin America, this treatment is available in the following countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. Little by little, rTMS has become more accessible to a larger number of people and has attracted the attention of large Health Centers and Hospitals as well as Universities and government organizations. rTMS treatment is now included in the psychiatrist’s arsenal of treatments to help solve the problem of resistant depression and to prevent its most tragic consequence: suicide.

Suicide, myths and realities

Suicide, myths and realities

  1. “Suicide is a selfish act”: Psychopaths and sociopaths are selfish but very rarely commit suicide. The depressed person reasons that her depression represents a serious problem for her family and loved ones. Therefore, suicide is an alternative for your family to free yourself from an emotional, physical and financial burden. In reality, suicide, in the opinion of the suicidal person, is a final act of help to free his family from a burden for which he feels responsible. The main idea of ​​”I want to commit suicide” can be a constant in a life that manages in many cases a concomitant anxiety and depression.

  2. “Suicide is an easy road”: For every suicide death, there are an average of 25 failed attempts. The person who commits suicide has generally thought about it for a long time and has struggled with feelings contrary to their beliefs, has struggled with feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, crying, hopelessness and shame. Suicide with the purpose and lethality it represents is an arduous and difficult decision to carry out. On many occasions, psychological help does not come from the front line and the consequences can be stronger.

  3. “He who wants to commit suicide will do it anyway”: Suicide prevention programs have been very successful in lowering suicide rates and provide invaluable help to people who feel they have reached the end of their lives. working day. Hotlines have saved countless lives in various countries and have helped raise awareness and educate the public about the need to help the suicidal patient. Mental health in Guatemala should take these alternatives as an example to reduce this problem.
  5. There is a depression resistant to drug treatment and the findings of the STAR*D research, (Sequenced Treatment Alternatives for the Relief of Depression) that was carried out in several clinical centers in the USA, there are 60% of patients who do not respond to treatment initial medication and that about 30% do not find improvement when using two or more pharmacological agents. “Resistant depression” has been defined as depression that does not respond to a course of treatment with at least two antidepressants. Traditionally, various forms of psychotherapy, multiple combination drugs, hospitalization, and electroconvulsive therapy have been used to treat this type of depression. These Treatments are not entirely effective and some have quite serious physical risks.There are alternatives to treat depression without drugs, such as those offered by our clinic.

A reality beyond fame…

robin-williams-depresion-suicidio

A reality beyond fame…

Robin Williams, the talented American actor and comedian died on August 11, 2014 as a result of asphyxia by hanging, successfully completing a final suicide attempt. In one of his stellar performances in the film “Dead Poets Society”, Williams plays an idealistic professor who is going to teach students, one of his most popular films, Williams becomes a doctor who he uses unconventional medical interventions to remind his colleagues of the virtues of the Hippocratic oath and to help his patients find faith and hope when death threatens. But life has its indecipherable designs and Williams himself, in his role in real life, as a patient trapped by a debilitating disease, associated with constant stress and anxiety led him to an outcome where he finally could not overcome depression.

As Peza said in said poem: “…How many there are who, tired of life, sick with sorrow, dead of tedium, make people laugh like the suicidal actor, without finding a remedy for their illness…”

Robin Williams died after fighting for many years against a severe depressive illness, drug addiction and alcohol abuse, these disorders carried without seeking adequate psychological help for long periods of time. This unfortunate combination gradually eroded his emotional strength over the years and contributed to the deterioration of his physical health. Rich, smart, famous, and extremely talented, Williams seemed to have it all. The inevitable question is: How is it possible that Robin Williams, with everything he possessed, tangible and intangible, chose to descend to the most remote places of the mind to find solutions to his problems and finally made the decision to commit suicide? Robin Williams was unique as an actor and comedian but as a human being he was like the rest of us, vulnerable and fragile in the face of mental illness. He almost perfectly fits the profile of someone at high risk of suicide. Caucasian male, past middle age, nearing the end of a successful career, with health problems (Parkinson, 2014 and S/P Aortic valve surgery, 2009), with severe chronic depression, with a history of drug abuse drugs and alcohol, recently graduated from a rehab program, and going through a difficult professional period. Williams’s suicide has somewhat illuminated the deepest, darkest nooks and crannies of the mind afflicted with depression and eaten away by drugs and alcohol. Regarding suicide, in the US in 2011, 39,518 people took their own lives. 60% of those who commit suicide suffer from depression. Suicide is the fourth (4th) leading cause of death in the US. 90% of people who commit suicide are associated with a diagnosis of psychiatric illness.

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