Antidepressant drug therapy

Abstract

Medicine had very little to offer in the treatment of the mentally depressed patient until the advent of shock therapy and the first monamine oxidase inhibitor, iproniazid. Unquestionably, the rather striking effects of iproniazid on mentally depressed individuals did much to stimulate interest in chemotherapy for this widespread and severely incapacitating mental condition. A large proportion of those with depression have a spontaneous remission 3 to 6 weeks after onset, but the situation may be serious during that period. In some, the condition does not undergo remission, grows steadily worse, and in others, leads to suicide. Continuous severe depression bringing about severe withdrawal of the individual from the main stream of life, ultimately leads to untreatable deteriorated states. It is, therefore, important that diagnosis be made as early as possible and treatment initiated promptly. Fortunately, drug therapy is now available which has much to offer these patients and even in the hands of the non psychiatrically oriented physician, oftentimes affords such relief as to return a patient to a much more useful and satisfactory existence.