Why Patients With Depression Do Not Improve their Symptoms When Using AntiDepressant Medications?

Statement of the Problem Depression is considered a mood disorder characterized by persistent felling of loss of interest and sadness. In TCM, vital energy deficiency is the cause of depression caused by dysfunction of systems in the body such as deficiencies in the Blood, Qi, Yin and Yang energy, accumulation as Phlegm and Dampness. The principle of the treatment is to strengthening the vital energy, stimulating the Blood circulation; take out the Heat that is causing inflammation and removing Phlegm and Dampness. Purpose To address that depression has an energy deficiency as the cause, diagnosed and confirmed by the chakras’ energy centers measurement and could worse even more when antidepressant medications are used, in this case in the treatment of depression like symptoms patients. Methods Through two cases reports, the first was 22 years old men with diagnosis of depression since 2019, and was using antidepressant medications without any improvement. The second was an 80-years-old woman, suffering from late-life depression since her 60’s, and using antidepressant medication since then. Both patients were not able to be functional (inability to leave the house, unable to cook for herself, extreme fatigue and with low self-stem). The patient complained that her symptoms were not improving, even with the increase of the dosage of the antidepressant drugs. Chinese dietary counselling, acupuncture and moxibustion were started in both patients. They also performed measurement of the chakras’ energy centers, considering a scale of 1 to 8, 1 being the minimum and 8 the normal level, six of her seven chakras were measured in 1. To replenish the energy of the chakras’ energy centers, she also used crystal-based medication and homeopathy based on the Constitutional Homeopathy of the Five Elements based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. She was oriented to gradually withdrawn the antidepressant medication, always associating the acupuncture sessions to reduce withdrawn symptoms. Results Both patients started to feel more energized, happier, and recovered the capacity of performing her daily activities very quickly since the first acupuncture session. The skin wrinkles of the second case report were appearing less too. Conclusion The depression has an energy deficiency as the root. It is important to treat these deficiencies to improve the patients’ symptoms and their quality of life. The use of antidepressant medication in this case can worse the vital energy, according to Arndt Schultz Law, maintaining or worsening the energy deficiencies that was causing the depression symptoms.