Depression therapy in addition to Effexor helps more patients

Medication on its own may not be enough to help some patients overcome all their depression symptoms. While these pills are instrumental in curbing the intensity of some problems people may encounter in depression treatment, researchers are uncovering other methods of boosting these medications' effects that don't require mixing more medications into daily regimens.

Specifically, researchers at Harvard Medical School investigated the impact of electroshock therapy on the brain's mood levels. Noninvasive brain stimulation, as it's medically known, is a process in which a cap covered with electrodes is placed on the patient's head and gentle electrical impulses are delivered to the brain through the scalp for about half an hour.

Researchers used four groups comprised of 30 people each, half of which got electrical brain stimulation and half did not. Of those groups of 60, half once more got a placebo drug and the others were given a drug like Effexor. In the group that got both the real pills and the noninvasive stimulation, depression relief was the greatest. This process could present a new evolutionary care for those with the most extreme mood disorders, the study stated.

"In the field of depression, it's important to know about treatment options, and medications alone don't work for everyone," psychiatrist Sarah Lisanby told Reuters. By creating methods that are just as effective but less invasive, doctors may be able to administer treatments more quickly and without adding to existing pharmaceutical costs each patient must incur.

Magnets and electrodes
Similar research not long ago using magnetic therapy also had positive results. As opposed to spending large amounts on antidepressant medications, a single prescription, which a person could fill with a legal online pharmacy, could be offset with gentle therapies. Reuters reported that transcranial magnetic stimulation, like the noninvasive electrical impulses, requires using high-power on the outside of the skull in a tight arrangement.

The source stated that in the previous magnetic study, almost 15 percent of all test subjects had recovered from their depressive symptoms within a month of regular applications, three times more than those in the placebo group. While it's unclear how long after the treatment ends that it will remain effective, magnets and electronic methods of relieving depression, in connection with Effexor and similar drugs, could provide a holistic and low-cost alternative to multiple prescription antidepressants.