Advances in Treatments for Depressive Disorder Yield Faster and Better Results
by Micah Hoffman, MD, DABPN, FAPA
AllMed Behavioral Health Medical Director
Did you know that depression is one of the top three causes of years lived with disability in the United States?1 This is, in part, because standard antidepressant medications don’t work for everyone. In fact, 5.5 million adults in the U.S. who are treated for depression don’t get better with first-line psychiatric medications.2
The good news is that the number of alternate treatment options is expanding. These options include recent advances in psychopharmacology such as mood-stabilizing medications, more targeted antidepressants, and ketamine along with non-medication treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The challenge for health plans is that it’s not always clear when it’s time to augment or replace first-line therapies—or how best to go about it. As in any specialized area of medicine, developing an appropriate psychiatric treatment plan depends on…