This is what antidepressant-resistant depression looks like.

Depression isn't something you can just will yourself to cure. It's a serious health problem that should be treated by professionals and sometimes also requires medication, although they don't always have any effect.

Colder climates cause people to spend more time indoors, drink less water, and become more sedentary, which, combined with genetic, social, and environmental factors, leads to episodes of depression.

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Because depression is the result of complex interactions, the main line of care is antidepressants, but in adolescents, education and psychotherapy must also be worked on. to prevent the problem from becoming chronic and limiting the person's activities in their social development.

However, the specialist in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UNAM, Elda Frinne Galicia Moreno, explained that Of patients receiving medical care for depression, 30 percent do not respond well to medication. , so the genetic factors that influence this response must be investigated.

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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2030 depression will be the third cause of disability. , which is why it is suggested to rely on pharmacogenomics in order to respond to this silent disorder.

A person is said to have resistant depression because, despite correct adherence to two antidepressants for six weeks each, the symptoms persist. Elda Galicia emphasized that this resistance may have its origins in the patient's lifestyle, the way in which medications are administered, but that some thirty genes have also been identified that have been linked to the success rate, so they can be exploited .

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He explained that there are several types of depression: dysthymia, atypical, seasonal affective, or cyclothymia , but there is also one that is considered treatment-resistant, that is, patients who, despite receiving pharmacological treatment, do not show improvement in their symptoms or changes in their mood. It is quite prevalent because it affects approximately 30 percent of Mexicans treated with some type of medication. .

To determine if a patient will respond to treatment, Galicia Moreno commented, our country has DNA tests capable of identifying up to 28 genes that determine how the body metabolizes medications. If it doesn't absorb them, it does so normally or quickly .

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According to the Epidemiological Bulletin of the National Epidemiological Surveillance System, published by the Ministry of Health, as of November 4, 2023, there were 132,000 people diagnosed with depression in Mexico, of which 36,000 are men and 96,000 are women .

With information from SUN

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