"Clinical Challenges: Managing Depression Long-Term" - Kristen Monaco
When optimizing progress for patients with certain psychiatric illnesses, uncertainty regarding long-term continuation of treatment can pose a clinical challenge. Particularly when treating generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder, it can be challenging determining the duration of long-term pharmacological treatment use, as well as which accompanying non-pharmacological therapies can be implemented to maximize treatment benefit. "Depression and/or anxiety are most often chronic conditions," said Dolores Malaspina, MD, MPH, director of the Psychosis Program and professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Genetic susceptibility interacts with stress to trigger an episode one or two times -- but once it is kindled it can thereafter be spontaneous without a trigger."
— Dolores Malaspina, MD, MPH, Director, Psychosis Program, Professor, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai