Psychotic Depression Treatment

David was divorced A few years back and was living alone in his apartment. Initially he used to visit his kids but later, he stopped because of some weird reasons. He thought that his kids hated him and called him bad names. They never did so. At the same time, he started having a lot of problems at work place. He felt as if his boss is going to fire him and his colleagues are conspiring against him. He used to feel that his office friends laugh at him whenever he passes by. He used be suspicious of every one. Slowly, he started hearing something which his colleagues never said. Life had become very difficult for him and he was depressed with everything happening around him. One day while listening to the radio he heard the radio jockey saying bad things about him. He told this to his friend. His friend took the issue seriously and after a few days, David was sent to the hospital for psychotic depression treatment.

From the above story, you might have got some clue about what is psychotic depression. This depression is similar to any other kind of severe depression along with paranoia or delusions or hallucinations or all of them together. Such patients often feel that somebody is going to harm them or kill them. They also tend to hear voices or see things that do not exist in reality. So, this depression can be characterized by severe depression with distortion from reality. Unlike schizophrenia patients, psychotic depression patients are aware of the fact that their hallucinations, delusions are not real once the panic attack is over and once they are back to sound state of mind. Such patients have suicidal tendency due to frustration as they cannot control their own thoughts. Hence it is important that these patients undergo treatment as early as possible.

Symptoms and Causes Psychotic Depression

Some of the signs of this type of depression include, insomnia, hypersomnia (excessive sleep), excessive physical movements or impaired and slow physical movements, noticeably increased or decreased appetite and sex drive, excessive weight gain or weight loss, depression, feeling hopeless and worthless, constipation, and hypochondria, etc., are some of the psychotic depression symptoms. Many patients try to hide the situation they are going through as they themselves are worried about weird hallucinations and delusions they are experiencing. The cause of this kind of depression is generally biological. Heredity is the most primary cause for severe depression. Apart from this, abnormal thyroid function can also result in psychotic depression and anxiety. It can also be triggered by side effects of some drugs or due to some physical factors.

Treatment for Psychotic Depression

There are few treatments available for this form of severe depression but the good news is that the available psychotic depression treatments are very effective and help patients recover faster. Given below are some of the treatments that may be used alone or in combination as per the severity of the problem.

Counseling: Before starting any treatment, doctors or psychotherapists prefer to counsel the patient and get him talking about his past. Mostly, the cause is hidden somewhere in the emotional problems. In case of acute depression some patients feel better after going through a psychotherapy where their pent up thoughts and emotions are released.

Antidepressants: Sometimes doctors also prescribe depression medications that help the patients get relief from some symptoms such as fatigue, guilt, hopelessness, etc., and make them feel better. There are various types of anti depressants but doctors choose the ones that have less or no side effects.

Mood Stabilizing Drugs: Some patients also experience extreme mood swings. They suddenly feel very happy and at the next moment they feel very sad and depressed. When they are depressed, they are most likely to experience hallucinations or delusions. Hence, to prevent the psychotic attack they are prescribed some mood stabilizers.

Anti-psychotic Drugs: Anti psychotic drugs are prescribed for those with chronic psychotic depression. Some patients remain distorted from reality for most of the time, whether they are happy or sad. In that case, these drugs help them control the obsessive thoughts and unreal things. These medicines do have some side effects such as, involuntary movements, shaking, and muscle rigidity but they do not last long. But some new drugs have less side effects.

Electro Convulsive Therapy: This depression treatment is provided strictly to the indoor patient, under the medical supervision. This treatment is characterized by giving mild and controlled shocks to the brain while the patient is under anesthesia. These shocks are generally the last resort when all the above treatments fail.

Once the patient has recovered, he may have to be under medical supervision and has to follow the psychotic depression treatment for some more days to avoid the relapse and keep the mental health intact. The only prevention for this depression is being happy, satisfied and content with yourself and the surroundings.