Primary care physicians, family practice nurses, clinics, or Health Maintenance Organizations are often the first place that people will go to get help. They generally will try and beat the depression and if the patient has very little or no improvement then they will refer them to the mental health specialst for further evaluation and treatment. As with any medical condition it is important not to get discouraged if the first treatment does not work. In almost every case there is a treatment for the depression that will work. The sooner one gets treated for depression the sooner one begins to feel better.
Successful treatment removes all symptoms of depression and returns one to their normal life.
The various treatment modalities available for depressed patients are medications, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy. There are different forms of depression and some people with depression have mood cycles where they have terrible lows, which is the depression, and inappropriate highs, mania, which can last from several days to rnonths. In between the highs and the lows the patient feels completely normal. Bipolar affects 1 in 100 people and it can be, in most cases, an inherited disorder. In the mania, patients with depression lack sleep, talk a lot, and are easily distracted.