Suggest Treatment For Depression

Posted on Tue, 17 May 2016

Question: I think I'm depressed. I go to work & most of the rest of the time is in bed. In October I was fired & had some unfair treatment I dealt with for months by coworkers. I had worked there 11 years on a same day surgery unit. I'm a nurse. Then I worked 4 month in dialysis clinic. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. The nurse training me treated me awful esp in front of patients. After a while they stated to treat me badly too. 5 of us were hired at the same time & we've all qui already. Right now I work at eastern mental hospital. I do enjoy it. I just need to get the rest of me on track what can I do?.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Chintan Solanki (54 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
both drugs and psychotherapy can help

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thanks for writing to us. I can understand your concern.

You are depressed and taking prozac already. It is a good anti depressant.

Treatment of depression includes both medicines and psychotherapy.

In psychotherapy I prefer cognitive behavior therapy (CBT).In mild cases only CBT is sufficient. In moderate to severe cases initially medicines and then CBT is added. And later on medicines stopped gradually.

In medicines SSRI group of drugs (fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline, escitalopram) are main stay of the treatment.

Considering your arthritis and fibromyalgia I recommend desvenlafaxine or mirtazpine for depression if you can tolerate.

For a while to improve health you need to maintain healthy lifestyle. This includes regular daily exercise (walking or running), hygienic food habits (no junk food, no fatty food, preferably only home-made food with law salt and fat with more fruits and vegetables) and timely scheduled sleep. Yoga- meditation can also help.

Hope I have answered your query, I will be happy to help further.
Regards,
Dr.Chintan Solanki.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar