Tuesday 5 January 2010

Effective depression treatment not available in NHS despite high demand.

Three quarters of GPs have prescribed anti-depressants even though they think another treatment would have been more effective, a survey has found.

The Mental Health Foundation says meditation halves the risk of repeated depression and should be more readily available, but access is very limited.

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The Mental Health Foundation says mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) halves the risk of further bouts of depression.

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But the report finds 75% of GPs have prescribed medication to people with long-term depression believing that another treatment - often less readily available - would be more appropriate.

The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended MBCT for recurrent depression since 2004.

But the latest report found that just one in five GPs say they can access the treatment for their patients, and only one in 20 prescribe it regularly.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Depression is a serious mental disorder which may risk even the life of the people with the problem going serious. Meditaion may be one good treatment for depression yet something must be done in helping the people from getting out of this mental problem.

Andrew Richardson said...

There is an effective depression treatment from those trained in the Human Givens approach. Depression is a REM sleep disorder - caused over dreaming in an attempt by the brain to deactivate the arousals (ie worries) of the previous day. The person wakes up exhausted and so with motivation less, worries increase and the cycle continues.

Human Givens is beginning to be used in the NHS but vested interests (the obsession with CBT) and strict medical model NICE guidelines are stopping what is a very effective treatment. Go to my Grump Optimist blog and click on the link to my feelbetter counselling site to find out more.

Dr Liz Miller said...

Mood Mapping is a non verbal approach to mental health
By understanding better how you feel and why you feel that way, you can start to change the way you feel. www.moodmapping.com

In a healthy and effective way!

Yes the NICE guidelines squash anything that does not have a powerful vested interest paying for protection - a bit like the Mafia!

Unknown said...
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