‘Depression’ carries different connotation for different people and it can simply range between “flat moods” to psychological disorder. It may be momentary or may linger on, acting disruptive to normal life.People taking medication for depression typically see a lot of improvements in their symptoms during the first few months, but lagging behind other areas is a sense of hopefulness, according to new research from the ‘University of Michigan Health System’.

Patients undergoing medication for depression follow different pace of improvement and many of them develop a sense of hopelessness during the treatment. This is likely to hinder the treatment in between in spite of the patient showing signs of improvement as he might stop taking medicines due to hopelessness.

Like depression, the feeling of hopeless also may linger for few weeks or for months and in few cases, it continues even after the depression is cured. James E. Aikens, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the ‘University of Michigan Health System ‘observed this during the study.

The researchers studied 573 patients undergoing treatment for the depressions and were administered antidepressants like fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil) or sertraline (Zoloft).

Their improvement was monitored periodically after a month, three, six and nine months. The majority of the patients showed speedy improvement under the treatment with 68% occurring within the first month and within 3 months, they showed 88% of improvement within the first three months. They also showed growth of positive attitude, improvement in work performance and better social behavior.

The patients also showed varying range of improvements in physical conditions like in the case of head, back and stomach pain. During the first month, they showed improvement at much faster pace as compared to the period thereafter. So Aikens suggests that physicians may consider supplementing the treatments to target the pain in depressed patients if they continue after long administration of anti depressants.

The study suggests that the feeling of hopelessness may act as an obstacle and a strong pessimism may stem out of it, resulting in committing suicide. In most of the cases, the patients stop continuing the medication in between.

So the study suggests the physicians to consider employing cognitive-behavioral strategies to combat this problem. Patients could be counseled to fight the thoughts of hopelessness and pessimism and could be involved in activities promising to bring positivism and cheerfulness.

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