Psych Central has reported on a new study released in the Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology that finds that a combination of psychotherapy and medication is usually "the best possible treatment option for depression (acute or chronic) for nearly everyone. If you’re only doing one or the other, you’re likely not going to get well as quickly, it’s that simple."

Manber and colleagues (2008) re-examined previous data on 656 patients with chronic depression to see who would get to remission first. Remission in depression research is simply when a person’s depression score on a commonly used depression quiz (the Hamilton) falls below a certain number.

People who had scores of less than 26 on the Hamilton fared best with the combination treatment — 40% of them attained ‘full remission’ within the 12 week study period. So in just 3 months of combined treatment, your depressive feelings could be significantly decreased.

To read the entire article, click here. I’m not at all surprised by the results of this study. We don’t know exactly what causes depression. It may be a combination of both physical and social factors. A "one-two punch" of medication to help improve the physical processes of the body in some way and therapy to help you work through personal issues makes perfect sense to me as the best way to recover.