Functional recovery treating depression - Interview with Prof Eduard Vieta

Reaching for goals

Prof Vieta described his ultimate treatment goal when tackling depression - that of full recovery. "We don’t just want to improve a few of our patients’ clinical symptoms, we want full functional recovery", he emphasized. Patients want to return to their lives before they were ill - they want to return to work and full functioning. This is also very important to their families.

"We want full functional recovery"

A key aspect of depression

Prof Vieta explained that cognitive symptoms are a key aspect of depression, not just depressed mood. Patients notice that they are forgetful, that they can’t perform calculations or follow an agenda.

"We are moving towards personalized medicine and more accurate staging systems"

In the past, the cognitive aspects of depression have been neglected, and are often more difficult to treat than low mood. However, a return to full recovery necessitates that these symptoms are tackled.

Advances in the field

Prof Vieta noted that there have been interesting developments in the field of depression over the past few years. He was pleased that EPA 2017 was well attended and remarked that it is encouraging to see the latest developments in the field.