Effective Treatments for Depression: Understanding the Cognitive Biotypes

2023-07-10 08:07:49

Antidepressants are mostly prescribed by psychiatrists to treat depression. However, a study shows that these treatments are effective in only a third of depressive patients, and have no effect on cognitive disorders.

Sadness, fatigue, appetite problems, sleep disturbances, anxiety, all these symptoms can exist separately, and are even quite common in an individual’s life. However, associated in a lasting way, they define depression, an often misunderstood disease which, contrary to certain received ideas, does not disappear spontaneously following some effort and a little sport, and most often requires a long treatment. But which one?

Indeed, the different characteristics of this disease can be expressed in very heterogeneous ways depending on the patients, their age, their environment, their cultural background, etc. If certain types of depression, such as postpartum depression or melancholic depression, are often well documented and treated effectively, only a third of depressed patients respond to the usual treatments. A problem that prompted Leanne Marie Williams, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, to take an interest in the different biotypes, that is to say the subgroups, of clinical depression. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Associationhis team identifies a cognitive biotype, which might partly explain this low rate of response to treatment in depressive patients.

“Cognitive disorders can be a consequence, but also a driver of the disease”

There is rarely a single root cause for depression. “The cognitive biotype is a subgroup of clinical depression in which cognitive problems are predominant”, explains Leanne Williams. “If these cognitive issues are not addressed, the individual will not experience improvement in functioning or other symptoms, including poor mood.pressive”. Cognitive disorders are calledthe general slowing of cognitive functions, resulting in difficulty concentrating, in decision-making, as well as problems of m[…]

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