|
I'm going to offer this for what it's worth.
There are two schools of thought on a depression that is non-responsive to medication.
One, there is an underlying medical condition that has not yet been diagnosed. Many years ago, I was unresponsive to antidepressants. After trying many different antidepressants with little or no luck in relieving my depression, a young, newly practicing psychiatrist decided to give me a TSH test. This is a blood test whereby the level of thyroid stimulating hormone excreted by the pituitary gland is measured in the blood. Prior to that, I had only been tested for the free T3 and T4 in my bloodstream. The test revealed that I had a thyroid deficiency which meant that the antidepressants were not being metabolized efficiently. Also, hypothyroidism itself causes depression. So, once I had begun thyroid replacement therapy, the antidepressant treatment improved.
The second theory is that for persons who have been previously diagnosed with major depression but have not been successfully treated, they actually may have bipolar II disorder. I'm not sure this is applicable because you said you once were treated with Lithium. But, there are other mood stabilizers so perhaps Lithium was not a good choice for you. I was misdiagnosed in 1985 with major depression. I was correctly diagnosed in 2004 with bipolar II. I read recently that this is very common.
JMHO.
__________________
 Vickie
|