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DEPRESSION TREATMENT COSTS

By Tess Thompson

Any illness brings in its wake worries about the cost of treatment. Long treatments obviously mean higher costs.

Clinical depression is one major disorder that requires extended treatment that is likely to last for a long time. Some related disorders like bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder require even longer treatment regimes. Treating depression is a long and arduous process and at times treatment can last a lifetime.

United States does not have a universal health care policy. Treating depression in certain cases can mean shelling out hefty sums from the personal pocket. Depending upon whether you have an insurance or not and the type of health insurance that you may have, the average cost of medication, psychotherapy and other treatments can amount to anything in the range of $1,500 to $4,400.

People who suffer from bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders and the like are likely to have a limited source of income. Better medical insurance schemes are offered to people who have higher incomes. And therefore, these people, who need medical insurance the most, are left to fund for themselves in most cases.

Depression treatment costs have been the subject matter of a number of studies in the recent past. The inferences drawn from them are indeed thought provoking. One of the key finding of these studies is that a large number of depression cases go undiagnosed. Among those who do receive depression treatment, adequate treatment is not meted out. There are very few cases in which medication and psychotherapy is used symbiotically to achieve best results.

The government needs to take specific steps to make depression treatment available easily for all income groups. Till the time such a policy is formalized, there are some options that you can look into for cutting costs.

* You can reduce costs by purchasing medications of higher potency at a proportionately lesser cost and then splitting them in half.
* There are online websites where some medications are given away free of cost. If you are lucky you may find the name of your on the list.
* There are privately sponsored programs which take a small fee of $5.00 for each medication. They contact drug manufacturers on your behalf for free dispensation of their drugs. Alternately, you can approach the manufacturers yourself.
* You could also ask your doctor if he can provide you with the free samples of the drug that he is prescribing.

Treating depression naturally is a healthier option and easy on the pocket too. Meditation and relaxation techniques advocated by yoga can be learned online, from books or from experts.

There are also natural remedies for depression which are not very expensive and work as good as antidepressants.

Natural, herbal and homeopathic remedies are inexpensive and available over the counter without a prescription. Homeopathy is also effective in managing depression symptoms. Herbs like St. John’s Wort, valerian roots and kava have been in use since long for treating depression and related symptoms.

Access to mental health services depends mainly on government policy. It will take some time for easy access to depression treatments for all sections of the society. In the meantime there seems to be no harm in trying the options listed above to manage your depression.

References:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/b/a/257705.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Natural-Depression-Treatments&id=294481
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/clientnews/2006_NAMI_NY.pdf.pdf
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/clientnews/2006_NAMI_CA.pdf
http://depression.about.com/cs/findadoc/a/freelowcosttx.htm