Psychiatrists often prescribe antidepressants to treat depression. However, a study showed that these therapies are effective in only a third of depressed patients, and have no effect on cognitive disorders.
Sadness, fatigue, appetite problems, sleep disturbances, anxiety, all these symptoms can exist separately and are even very common in an individual’s life. Permanently related, however, they define depression, an often misunderstood disease that, contrary to some popular ideas, does not go away automatically after some effort and a little exercise, and often requires long cure. But which one?
In fact, the different characteristics of this disease can be expressed in very heterogeneous ways depending on the patients, their age, environment, cultural background, etc. If certain types of depression such as Postpartum depression or melancholic depression, is often well documented and treated effectively, yet only a third of depressed patients respond to standard treatments. And it’s a problem that prompted Leanne Marie Williams, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, to take an interest in the different biotypes, that is, subgroups of clinical depression. In a study published in Journal of the American Medical Associationhis team identifies a cognitive biotype, which could partly explain this lower rate of response to treatment in depressed patients.
Cognitive disturbances can be a consequence of illness, but they are also a trigger.
There is rarely a single root cause of depression. Cognitive biotype is a subset of clinical depression in which cognitive problems predominate. Leanne Williams explains. “If these cognitive issues are not addressed, the individual will not experience an improvement in performance or other symptoms, including a bad mood.pressure”. are called cognitive disordersGeneral slowdown in cognitive functions, which leads to difficulty concentrating, in decision-making, as well as AD problems.[…]
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