Treatment-resistant depression or refractory depression is a term used in clinical psychiatry to describe cases of major depressive disorder that do not respond to at adequate courses of least two antidepressants.[1]
Treatment of refractory depression has traditionally most commonly involved electroconvulsive therapy and use of non-standard medications, but new technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation are being studied as a safer alternative. Treatment of refractory depression may also involve more invasive interventions, such as vagus nerve stimulation.
The term was first coined with the development of the concept in 1974.
References
^ Wijeratne, Chanaka, Sachdev, Perminder (2008). "Treatment-resistant depression: critique of current approaches.". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry42: 751-62. PMID 18696279.
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