Sometimes unusual sadness and grief can be considered to be one of the common emotions that we may all experience time and again throughout our life! However, all these feelings are quite temporary in normal condition; but a person with major depressive disorder continues to experience the same emotions with long-lasting symptomatic exhibition of sadness, lack of productivity and low energy levels, etc. Each person tries to find out some of the unique ways of fighting depression; and the condition if left untreated for a longer period of time can lead to certain disastrous health hazards. Fortunately, there are a number of effective as well as unique ways of fighting depression, such as stimulation therapy, medications, diet, and exercises.
How to overcome depression
A statistical survey suggests that the state of mental health of almost 50-60% people in developed countries are in crisis; for which lifestyle changes and excessive stress are to be blamed. Although due to technological and scientific advancements, there are treatments available that may offer various unique ways of fighting depression; one of the major challenges in its early intervention is the stigma attached to ask for a medical assistance, especially in case of mental disorders.
Moreover, the only available conventional way out for early detection of depression was a psychological questionnaire; but that was not been validated in the full proof setting of general practice. Thus, the issue of the early detection should be taken very seriously to offer individualistic treatments to overcome depression.
Identifying the irregularities that cause depression
Nowadays, technological advancements have allowed usage of high tech smartphones to detect the symptoms of depression in its early stage. Experts suggest that depression is always associated with irregularity in our daily schedule related to sleeping habits, eating habits, and socializing. This irregularity is being identified with the help of the smart phone sensors with the help of its sensitive as well as HIPAA compliant sensing as well as processing technology.
Accordingly, in order to apply certain unique ways of fighting depression, many corporate giants are coming up with different apps to track behavioral changes associated with depression. These apps are able to provide appropriate feedback depending upon the intense and concise data collected through behavioral changes, and have overwhelmed the experts so far!
The research in this regard is still ongoing to be able to technologically sense the brain’s automatic reactions in several situations. The biofeedback will further be helpful to nudge users’ behaviors to offer better treatment protocol.
Common causes and risk factor of depression
Research so far has suggested that depression cannot be linked to any cause or risk factors, but multiple factors can be linked with the proposed mental trauma. Accordingly, some of the well-known risk factors for depression include:
- Low personal esteem
- Disorders associated with anxiety, borderline personalities, post-traumatic stress and related conditions.
- Physical as well as sexual abuse
- Depression associated with chronic disorders like diabetes, paralysis, multiple sclerosis, as well as cancer-related disorders
- Disorders characterized by alcohol as well as drug abuse
- The family history of depression
- Depression associated with environmental issues like age, gender, race as well as geographical distribution.
Latest Advancements for treating people with depression and anxiety
Traditionally various treatment can be offered to sought issues related to depression and anxiety, which may include steroidal drugs, exercises,and therapies. However, these steroids were found to be dangerously affecting functional attributes of other important organs of the body over the period of time.
Moreover, other drug-free options like exercises and therapies were found to express mixed effects pertaining to the patient’s recovery, and don’t seem like working for everyone. Alternatively, different therapeutic inventions have come up today that have been proven to treat various facets of depression, and can be noted as follows:
Light Therapy
If you are one of those suffering from negative mood symptoms, especially during particular seasons, like fall or winters then light therapy can be one of the unique ways of fighting depression. The light emitted through the light box is helpful in stimulating the secretion of certain happy hormones in the brain, such as dopamine, serotonin and endorphins that are able to change the mood settings. Experts also believe that apart from treating these seasonal affective disorders, light therapy can also be useful in treating jet lag, disturbed sleep along with those with certain types of dementia.
Stimulation Therapies
People suffering froma severe type of depression or related disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorders, personality disorders, etc. are identified to be tackled with different unique ways of fighting depression; one of them can be stimulation therapy. These therapies effectively apply certain devices like magnets, electric current and/or innovative implants to stimulate the brain function using neuronal stimulation.
Helmet Therapy
In order to find out various unique ways of fighting depression, scientists are clinically investigating effects of helmet therapy. The therapy is characterized with placing the helmet on the brains to conduct electromagnetic stimulation for restoring various functional aspects of neurons. The study was published with very impressive results, wherein almost 70% of patients with severe depression observed immediate symptomatic relief, post helmet therapy.
Electrostimulation Devices
Image Source : medtechhealthcare.com
Electrostimulation devices have been proposed to be an effective and good alternative in offering definitive treatment options to people suffering from depression and associated disorders. Various devices can be linked in vivo as part of the brain to initiate a signaling cascade that is responsible for secreting various happy hormones for manipulating the mood. Out of the many devices formulated as electromagnetic, the only FDA approved device is named to be as the Fisher Wallace Stimulator that can be used in the comfort of home for approximately 20 minutes or so; twice a day to get the best results.
Conclusion
Mental health has become wildly prevalent; and, it is often associated with various health conditions. With conventional module it was early detection of depression was quite challenging. Moreover, definitive treatment option was highly lacking. Thus, scientists all over the world were struggling to find out various treatment options, which can offer much better therapeutic outcome.