Depression Treatment Overview

This site is layed out to make the most recent information on treatments for depression as usable as possible for both professionals and people suffering from depression.

Drugs are not the only option.

Many people have been convinced that medications are the most effective treatment for depression by advertising and marketing, not by science. By looking at the science we get a very different perspective. We discover that there is no good evidence that medications are superior to any of the treatments in this site's Recommendations Section for mild, moderate or severe depression.

How to use this site.

You can begin by reviewing the Recommendations Section and seeing if there is a treatment you would like to begin immediately. You can also look at the reviews of Specific Depression Treatments in order to read a summary of the controlled evidence for that treatment.

A note on reading evidence.

Many research studies overgeneralize or misinterpret their results. It might even be fair to say that most do. What I have tried to do in interpreting the evidence on these treatments is to look at as many studies as possible paying particular attention to areas in which there is conflicting evidence. In accounting for these conflicts I have considered problems in methodology and researcher bias, particularly trials funded by vested interests. There are many questions about treatments for depression that cannot yet be answered by the available evidence. However, I believe that this site outlines a general picture of what we do know.

This site is maintained by Tim Desmond, MFTI 51287
copyright © 2007 Tim Desmond, MA. Last updated 31Jul2008.
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