Abstract

*Abinaya Arulappan, Venkateswaramurthy Nallasamy

ABSTRACT

Background: Depression is frequently managed in primary care disease settings. While both drug therapy and psychotherapy are commonly used, their comparative effectiveness is not clearly established. Aim: To compare the efficacy of drug therapy alone versus combined drug therapy and psychotherapy therapy in managing unipolar depression. Objective: To determine the efficacy of combining pharmacological therapy with psychodynamic treatment for depression. Methodology: The study has a sample size of 316 whose depression severity, whether mild, moderate, or severe, was evaluated using Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). The collected data were divided into two types of therapy: drug therapy alone and drug therapy combined with counselling, and then further categorized into four groups based on the time frame of treatment. Results and discussion: Among 316 participants, 179 were females (56.6%) and 137 were males (43.4%) reported having depression. Depending upon the duration of therapies patients undergoing drug therapy and counselling for a period of more than 3 months and less than a year are maintained in the mild and moderate stages of depression thus the combined therapy is effective within 1 year. Conclusion: Drug therapy alone and combined therapy showed similar effectiveness in managing depression, with the two treatment groups showing no statistically significant difference.