Effective Treatments for Depression

This chart is based on 4,956 people with depression who participated in CureTogether surveys, compared to 944 people last year.

The top treatments are still exercise, sleep, and talking to others – they are popular and effective ways to feel better when you’re depressed.

But here are 23 things you may not have tried that thousands of others say worked well for them:

1. Music therapy
2. Art therapy
3. Mindful meditation
4. Massage therapy
5. Group sports
6. Breathwork
7. Light therapy
8. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
9. Neurofeedback
10. Tai Chi
11. Personal growth workshops
12. Support groups
13. Xanax
14. Sertralin
15. Venlaxafin
16. Mirtazapine
17. Shiatsu
18. Dialectical Behavior Therapy
19. Lamictal
20. Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
21. Bibliotherapy
22. Synthroid
23. SAM-e

Another new thing on this chart: alcohol was added as a treatment, and was rated to make depression worse instead of better.

To navigate the graph above:

The top right quadrant shows the most popular and effective treatments, and the top left quadrant shows treatments that not many people have tried but that have above-average effectiveness, so they may be options to think about (e.g. the 23 treatments listed above).

Treatments in the lower right quadrant are ones that lots of people have tried but that have below-average effectiveness (e.g. caffeine, fish oil), and treatments in the lower left quadrant are reported as neither popular nor effective, so you may want to consider this when choosing a treatment (e.g. Effexor, Paxil).

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