TITLE:
The way early-onset chronically depressed patients are treated today makes me sad
AUTHORS:
James P. McCullough
KEYWORDS:
CBASP Psychotherapy; DSM-V Chronic Depression Disorder; Combination Treatment; Early-Onset Chronic Depression
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.2 No.1,
December
31,
2011
ABSTRACT: The author has treated almost 400 chronically depressed outpatients during his career. He has also participated as a Field Trial Coordinator in the Unipolar Field Trials of DSM-IV and consulted with the DSM-V Mood Disorders Workgroup concerning his research for the new diagnostic nomenclature for the chronic depressions, Chronic Depression Disorder. In addition, he has served as Principal Investigator in several large clinical trials involving 2200 chronically depressed outpatients. The current paper is a Brief Report describing his negative reactions to the way 40 of his chronically depressed patients have been treated today by both Psychologists and Psychiatrists. All the patients are his patients and have been seen by him in psychotherapy over the past decade. Several reasons are proposed for the inadequate treatment and specific proposals are made for the improvement of treatment for the early-onset chronically depressed patient.