In his book, Understanding Depression: What We Know And What You Can Do About It, J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D. asserts that for the 20 percent of his patients who are more difficult to treat, or “treatment-resistant,” he sets an 80 percent improvement, 80 percent of the time goal. And he usually accomplishes that.
Now, if you’re not someone who has struggled with chronic depression, those stats won’t warrant a happy dance.
But if you’re someone like myself, who assesses her mood before her eyes are open in the morning, hoping to God that the crippling anxiety isn’t there, then those numbers will have you singing Hallelujah.
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Thank you for this post. It’s good to know there’s still hope for those with treatment-resistant depression. I’ve been on a lot of medication combinations, taken a lot of therapy, exercised, etc. also, and it’s frustrating when the darkness returns and adjustments have to be made once again. 80 for 80 sounds pretty good to me also!
For some reason I picked up the new SSRI prescription at the pharmacy last week. I usually don’t bother even picking them up anymore (except for the Xanax). I quit counting the number of meds tried along time ago.
Maybe I should give it another shot. 12 weeks right now seems like forever, I’m scared to even think that far ahead!!… all the perils and problems that lay in waiting!
But when I look at it as 3 months, well, that will go by.
I’ll think about it.
Well, that’s a wonderful ending to a tough story. I’ve been up and down with depression for 4 decades. I now realize how valuable each of the up times were. The moral is ya gotta just keep getting up to bat and keep swinging. I am so glad you finally were able to unlock the right combination.
Congratulations, ma’am. My treatment team suggests I might have to accept I will never get better. Also, I do not have the funds for private treatment. The tens of thousands I spent were insufficient.
Oh Therese,
I can so relate to the trials of drugs therapy, light boxes, meditation tapes, fish oil, vitamins and on and on ad naseum….For me, It only took 12 trials and I’ve been in remission for many many years now. I do get occasional panic attacks, and have the blues, but nothing like before. There is hope, and I’ll continue to take my meds and vitamins and fish oil.Thank you for keeping us encouraged.
Oh, Therese, how I wish it were easier….To add a bit more hope, I recently caught up with old friends, one of whom had a truly wicked case of resistant depression that included heavy suicidality — she was suddenly seeming dramatically better after perhaps a dozen years of horrible suffering, and said her best guess was that it was a combination of hormonal changes after menopause and a new drug called Viibryd. So it does happen, it does…..
I appreciate this story. I especially found the words “Folks trudging through the everyday muck of depression and pervasive, annoying, destructive, negative, intrusive thoughts need hope” poignant. Clearly, you know what it is like.
I am a treatment resistant depressive too. But after years of trial and error I have found a lifestyle that gives me a lot of good days. It is hard work, but if I stick to it I can be free of depression about 80% of the time.
It requires detailed attention to a regime of good diet, exercise, journaling, resting, and monitoring and choosing all of my activities with care.I am ever vigilant to my mood and when possible respond to it accordingly with whatever is needed.
It is hard work but it is worth it. I am worth it. I have a life now. It is not the life I would have imagined, but it is a good life.
I encourage anyone out there not to give up! There is always something we can try which might make a little bit of difference. Add up all of the little bit of differences and you get a lot of difference!
I think 80% sounds good to a doctor w/out treatment-resistant depression! No med/combo of meds has really treated my depression – the way I describe it is that they help me survive, but I never get to the “living” portion. The idea that people actually have a remission seems foreign to me. I tried to get into a transcranial nerve stimulation trial. I went off all meds (not that big of a deal because they don’t do that much for me) and met w/the makers of the unit. They had me come in two times to see if they could get it to work on me in order to meet FDA guidelines – no such luck as the amount of stimulation my brain needed to move my finger was a level that induced seizures in most people.
Interesting to read Carey’s comment that menopause helped someone. My depression surfaced with the onset of puberty so my hope has always been that it might decrease as I hit menopause – very close!
So much hope in this piece! I had what I thought was treatment resistant depression but for me it was combining alcohol with my medicine often enough for it not to work. I discovered apparently I respond quite well to antidepressants after getting sober! Go figure! Anyways I enjoy your blog Beyond Blue, it and your book were actually recommended to me by my amazing therapist Kim Kirkup in Crabapple GA. Ill keep following your journey. Thanks!