Are There Effective Treatments for Depression?

Excerpted from the CAMH publication: Postpartum Depression: A Guide for Front-Line Health and Social Service Providers, Chapter 1 - Clinical Overview

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• Reluctance to disclose symptoms

Health professionals can effectively treat depression and most women fully recover. Depending on the nature of the illness, treatments can include medication, psychological therapies, counselling and support groups. The different types of treatment available are discussed in detail in Chapter 5.

For a discussion of who to refer to and how to obtain a formal diagnosis of PPD, please see Chapter 6.

Reluctance to disclose symptoms

Women may not be willing to admit to experiencing depressive symptoms for a myriad of reasons, which are discussed in Chapter 3. They may hesitate to talk about how they are feeling because they don’t recognize that their symptoms are due to a major mental illness, or because they think they are bad mothers because they are not coping. Or they may feel embarrassed, guilty or resentful, worry about being labelled or stigmatized as mentally ill, or worry that others might minimize or dismiss their fears and concerns. Some cultures do not perceive depression following childbirth as a medical problem that requires intervention. As a result, some women would not seek treatment, or their immediate family would deal with the problem (Oates et al., 2004).

A service provider working with new mothers needs to be aware of the different ways in which depressive symptoms may be presented.

Individuals differ in the types of symptoms they experience, the degree to which they are affected, and the manner and degree to which they may disclose symptoms.

Depressive episodes range in severity: some individuals have mild cases through to extremely severe episodes. Irrespective of meeting formal criteria for depression, any woman requires help if she has symptoms that cause her distress, cause problems in her daily living or could become worse.

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