Prescription and Nonprescription Treatments for Depression in Young Adults

Prescription and Nonprescription Medication

Depression in young adults is a severe medical condition that requires appropriate treatment. Healthcare professionals can use the following prescription medications:

1. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (citalopram, fluoxetine, and sertraline) are helpful since they increase the level of serotonin in the brain, which contributes to mood regulation (Gabriel et al., 2020).
2. Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) (venlafaxine, duloxetine, and levomilnacipran) lead to higher levels of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain (Baba et al., 2022). That latter element is another neurotransmitter that participates in mood regulation.
3. Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) (amitriptyline, doxepin, and imipramine) block the reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain (Baba et al., 2022).

In addition to that, several nonprescription medications can be used to treat depression:

1. St. John’s wort can effectively reduce symptoms of this condition because this herbal supplement is said to increase serotonin levels.
2. Vitamin D is linked to mood regulation, and its deficiency can result in a higher risk of depression.
3. Regular exercise produces endorphins that have mood-boosting effects, which can reduce depression symptoms.
4. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help because this intervention changes negative behaviors and thought patterns to teach people how to cope with challenges and preserve a positive attitude.

Adverse Effects, Drug-Drug Interactions, and Desirable Outcomes

Treatment should be carefully selected because various side effects are possible. The liver metabolizes all prescription medications via cytochrome P450 (CYP), which denotes that patients’ hepatic function should be regularly monitored (Baba et al., 2022). The same attention should be paid to the kidneys, as they can also be affected during treatment.

TCAs have antihistamine and anticholinergic effects, which can result in hypotension, tachycardia, falls, and staggering (Baba et al., 2022). Other negative outcomes can include a syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone, sudden cardiac death, gastrointestinal bleeding, and lethal arrhythmias (Baba et al., 2022). All these facts denote that healthcare professionals should be careful when prescribing and administering depression treatment.

One should additionally explain how these prescription medications interact with one another. SSRIs and SNRIs inhibit CYP, suggesting they should be used with caution when combined (Baba et al., 2022). The researchers also highlight that TCA tolerability is lower than that of SSRIs and SNRIs (Baba et al., 2022). This information indicates that physicians should consider multiple factors when selecting appropriate treatment and ensuring that prescribed medications work effectively and do not harm the patient.

Before presenting an effective treatment plan, it is necessary to specify the desired outcomes. First, the leading goal of this intervention is to reduce the severity or eliminate depressive symptoms. They are sadness, sleep disturbances, irritability, emptiness, and many other negative feelings and conditions (Baba et al., 2022).

Second, it is necessary to improve daily functioning. As a rule, people with depression cannot live normal lives because this condition makes them indifferent to the world. Third, the treatment is effective if it prevents relapse and recurrence. This statement denotes that the presented interventions should provide patients with short- and long-term improvements. These three milestones are the desired outcomes of depression treatment.

Pharmaceutical Treatment Plan

When an adult is diagnosed with severe depression, an appropriate medication plan should be prescribed. It is reasonable to begin with the first-line therapeutics, including SSRIs (sertraline 25 mg daily) or SNRIs (duloxetine 30 mg daily) (Elias et al., 2022). It is reasonable to combine antidepressant treatment with evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (Baba et al., 2022). However, this classic antidepressant treatment is not effective for over a third of patients, and a suitable intervention in this case is to use a nasal spray form of esketamine (Baba et al., 2022). Since this medication has drawbacks, it is still being studied before widespread implementation.

Since the paper focuses on depression in young adults, the treatment plan does not include any specific age considerations. The selected scholarly articles present their conclusions based on the adult population, indicating that their findings apply to the case under analysis. If the given condition had been considered among children or older individuals, pediatrics or geriatrics comments would have been included. That is why the current treatment plan does not require any specifications as per the population’s characteristic features.

Facilitating Conversation

Pharmacological treatment is not the only intervention that is needed to help a patient overcome this condition. Effective communication is essential to this activity because individuals should understand that their adherence to the recommendations significantly affects treatment efficiency. That is why healthcare professionals should provide patients with education regarding treatment and its risks.

A suitable tip is to engage a patient in decision-making to make them see their control over their health and life. Furthermore, a medical provider should stipulate that up to 40% of people with depression will experience another depression episode within two years (Cuijpers et al., 2020). This information indicates that people should be aware of this condition and ways to overcome it, even after recovery.

References

Baba, H., Kito, S., Nukariya, K., Takeshima, M., Fujise, N., Iga, J., Oshibuchi, H., Kawano, M., Kimura, M., Mizukami, K., Mimura, M., & Committee for Treatment Guidelines of Mood Disorders, Japanese Society of Mood Disorders. (2022). Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of depression in older adults: A report from the Japanese Society of mood disorders. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 76(6), 222-234.

Cuijpers, P., Stringaris, A., & Wolpert, M. (2020). Treatment outcomes for depression: Challenges and opportunities. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(11), 925-927.

Elias, E., Zhang, A. Y., & Manners, M. T. (2022). Novel pharmacological approaches to the treatment of depression. Life, 12(2), 196.

Gabriel, F. C., de Melo, D. O., Fráguas, R., Leite-Santos, N. C., Mantovani da Silva, R. A., & Ribeiro, E. (2020). Pharmacological treatment of depression: A systematic review comparing clinical practice guideline recommendations. PLoS One, 15(4).