There are lots of options in treating depression but there is no guarantee that they will work! We now know that millions of depressed patients take medicines which relieve their symptoms and never get to the root cause of the depression. When I say works, please forgive me if I smile, as we now know that the pie is divided into three more or less equal slices.

The first slice (about 33%) will go to those patients who will actually get out of the black hole of depression. Lucky them! What about the other two slices? The second third will get partial relief while the third one will not get any positive results at all. The drugs companies never mention this. What is certain is that 100% of the patients on these drugs will have some side effects and many will give up just because of those.There has been extensive research on the efficacy of the so called anti-depressant medications which looked at over 100,000 cases. Two researchers from the University of Nevada School of Medicine have commented on this study which concludes that the findings show in an unequivocal manner that the first option in treating depression should always be some form of therapy and or counseling, rather than medication.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) can help the patient to get rid of the vicious circle of negative feelings and thoughts which lead in a downward spiral to pessimism, hopelessness and in many cases suicide. The shocking thing of course is that all the other options for treating depression such as self-help, diet, exercise, yoga and meditation are all regarded as secondary options. We now know that many of these options will work even better than depression medication and they have no side effects.

Similarly, herbal treatments of depression have not had a good press at all, which is most unfair in my opinion. In Europe, however the Prozac tide has been kept back and herbal remedies such as St. John's Wort and the Passion Flower are regarded as perfectly valid options to anti-depressants and are often the first line in treating depression, SAD and other depressive disorders.

Why not look into a herbal remedy as a valid depression treating strategy ? It will be necessary to look carefully at the company's reputation and their staff and manufacturing processes and whether there is any FDA supervision. Herbal ingredients must always be the purest possible and grown in areas which are free of pesticides.