Functional depression
apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral What is cognitive behavioral therapy? (2017).The structure of executive dysfunction in depression and anxiety. Cognitive impairment in depression: recent advances and novel treatments. Paying attention to attention in depression. The neuroscience of positive memory deficits in depression. topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cognitive-remediation-therapy Executive functions in students with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. It’s helpful to communicate regularly with your doctor about how you’re feeling so that your treatment can be adjusted as needed. Some of these issues may fade as you get treatment for mood and cognitive issues, or some may persist and need their own treatment. If you live with depression, you might also experience issues like:
Physical effectsĭepression can cause physical changes as well as emotional and cognitive ones. For example, computer or pencil and paper tasks target areas like sustained attention and working memory. Cognitive changesĬognitive remediation therapy (CRT) may be able to help with some of the brain changes brought about by depression.ĬRT involves training individual cognitive skills so they can be applied to real-life situations later. CBT is also about understanding learned behaviors that may be maladaptive and connecting with unhealthy means of coping. Your therapist can help you examine the accuracy of those thoughts and replace them with more realistic ones that are more helpful. The goal of CBT is to identify the thoughts that are bringing you down. This therapy explores the underlying thoughts that can affect the way you feel. An effective option is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Talk therapy may also help to ease a depressed mood. These chemicals affect health and wellbeing in numerous ways, so having the right amounts at the right times can be a tremendous help.
Medications for depression work by balancing the neurotransmitters in your brain.
Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs): clomipramine ( Anafranil), imipramine ( Tofranil).Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs): duloxetine ( Cymbalta), venlafaxine ( Effexor XR).Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI): sertraline ( Zoloft), paroxetine ( Paxil), escitalopram ( Lexapro).Consulting with your doctor to discuss the benefits and side effects of each is a good way to find a medication that can help. Medication can help to ease the mood changes that accompany depression. You might have more than one person involved in your care, like your family doctor and a therapist. Since depression creates symptoms in more areas than just mood, effective treatment for depression should be a combined approach. Depressed mood interfered with their ability to maintain task goals and caused executive function deficits. Other students in the same study who had stress and anxiety experienced similar brain changes.Īnother study involving 1,123 college undergraduates revealed similar results. They experienced executive dysfunction in the following areas: You’re not alone, and it’s not your fault.Ī study featuring 448 participants uncovered cognitive changes in students with depression. If you’re experiencing this, you may notice changes in your ability to: You use executive functioning to manage your life and reach your goals.ĭepression can cause executive dysfunction. The executive functioning system is sometimes called the CEO of the brain, because of the way it allows you to supervise your own thinking. Executive function refers to higher-level thinking.