Depression

What is it?

Depression is a common psychological condition caused by biological, environmental, and psychosocial factors. Depression causes people to experience sadness, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, abnormal eating, and many other life-disrupting symptoms. People with depression may also experience cognitive impairment, most noticeably in attention, processing speed, memory, and executive function. This can cause people living with depression to have trouble performing in the workplace or in school, which can cause them to experience more stress. Cognitive remediation therapy using computerized cognitive training tools has been shown to be effective in remediating some cognitive impairments resulting from depression.

What can be done for depression?

Treatments for depression range from pharmacological, brain remediation, and psychotherapeutic interventions. Patients can be treated with a combination of therapies, according to what their medical professional determines is the best course of action. An obstacle with depression is that some medications work for some people while others do not. It takes a few months to a year for antidepressant medications to work, while cognitive functioning can decline as the experience of depression remains.

Cognitive remediation therapy can help depressed patients with their cognitive functioning. The goal of cognitive remediation therapy for depressed patients is to assist them in developing effective strategies when challenges arise, such as making an important decision when many options and pieces of information are available.