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What Would Be Considered Useless Person With Major Depressive Disorder And Generalized Anxiety Disorder For Over 20 Years?
Posted on
Tue, 2 Jun 2020
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Tue, 2 Jun 2020
Answered on
Wed, 8 Oct 2025
Last reviewed on
Question : Hello, do I understand correctly that the brain of a person with Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder for over 20 years ( and is now diagnosed with treatment resistant depression) will look totally different than the brain of a "normal" person? Would a psychiatrist, or neurosurgeon being able to look at the "sick" brain and come up with any pertinent data in reference to the severity of the patients illness and/or any information that might lead to a proper treatment? And conversely, what would be considered useless? Thank you for your time.
Brief Answer:
With use of sophisticated investigations
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
First of all I like to inform you that there is currently no method to differentiate brain of normal person from the patient of recurrent depressive disorder patient on conclusive basis. There is some overlap between the brain structures of normal person with RDD brain.
However with use of sophisticated investigations such as PET, SPECT the differences can be made out and pathology can be located in the affected areas of brain. It is also possible to estimate the magnitude of problem with these tests to quantify the severity of pathology.
Having said this please note that clinical symptoms are more important when the course of treatment is considered. This is because clinical symptoms may not be correlated with magnitude of underlying problem, as detected by recant investigations.
On the current date mental status examination and clinical symptoms give better idea of problem than the sophisticated investigations, which are good for research purpose on the current date.
Neurosurgeons have limited role in treatment of depression but psychiatrist with use of mental status examination and interview can decide the best course of treatment for the person with recurrent depression.
I hope this answers you.
Feel free to write back to me if you have more questions.
Thanks and regards.
With use of sophisticated investigations
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
First of all I like to inform you that there is currently no method to differentiate brain of normal person from the patient of recurrent depressive disorder patient on conclusive basis. There is some overlap between the brain structures of normal person with RDD brain.
However with use of sophisticated investigations such as PET, SPECT the differences can be made out and pathology can be located in the affected areas of brain. It is also possible to estimate the magnitude of problem with these tests to quantify the severity of pathology.
Having said this please note that clinical symptoms are more important when the course of treatment is considered. This is because clinical symptoms may not be correlated with magnitude of underlying problem, as detected by recant investigations.
On the current date mental status examination and clinical symptoms give better idea of problem than the sophisticated investigations, which are good for research purpose on the current date.
Neurosurgeons have limited role in treatment of depression but psychiatrist with use of mental status examination and interview can decide the best course of treatment for the person with recurrent depression.
I hope this answers you.
Feel free to write back to me if you have more questions.
Thanks and regards.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vaishalee Punj
Answered by
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