Depression and Teens:
Treatment Options
How is depression treated?
There are many different kinds of treatment for depression. Deciding on the right treatment depends on how much difficulty your teenager is having, what treatments are available to you, and personal choice.
- Counseling or Psychotherapy. Counseling or psychotherapy is something that can help with depression, and often the first treatment that is recommended by health care providers. It includes talking about thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a confidential setting. Therapy can create a safe environment for your teen to discuss painful or frightening issues without feeling judged. It can teach your teen strategies for coping with situations in her life and with her feelings. It can also help her to understand herself better and provide an opportunity for her to learn how to solve problems more effectively.
Therapy can be done in a few different settings. Individual therapy is when your teen meets with the therapist alone in an ongoing way. Group therapy, with other teenagers, puts your teen in touch with others around her age who are experiencing similar problems, and may be reassuring. Sometimes, when a teenager is depressed, family therapy is useful, as members of families affect each other. The purpose of family therapy is not to blame but to support the family and help everyone get along better with each other.
- Medication. If depression is significantly interfering with your teenager's life, or if you or she feel that therapy alone isn't helping, your teenager's health care provider or therapist may suggest medication. The levels of certain chemicals in the brain affect depression. Taking medication can help the chemicals become more balanced, helping a person feel less depressed.
A doctor, a psychiatrist, or a nurse practitioner can prescribe medications. There are many different medications that treat depression. Parents often have concerns about their children taking medication for depression, so it is helpful to ask about the benefits and possible side effects. Anti-depressant medication has generally been shown to be safe when used as prescribed. When your teen is feeling better, she may want to stop taking the medication, but many medications should be decreased gradually. You and your teen should always talk with her health care provider before making any changes with the medication.
- Day Programs, Overnight Programs, and Hospitals. If your teen becomes so depressed that she has trouble with her every day life, or she is having thoughts about hurting herself, she needs more help than regular counseling sessions at a counseling center or hospital. In a day program, at a counseling center or hospital, patients arrive in the morning and spend all day in counseling, group discussions, and activities with mental health professionals and other patients. Overnight treatment programs are usually at hospitals where patients receive professional care all-day and are supervised overnight. Both treatments are used for teens who are severely depressed. Sometimes when a teen first feels depressed they can be in crisis, requiring in-hospital care, or sometimes it might happen if the depression has been going on for a long time and there are no signs of improvement.
Written by the Center for Young Women's Health Staff
Updated: 07/03/06
Related
Information:
|
Previous
Printer Friendly
View Full PDF