How Long Do I Need to See a Psychiatrist If I Have Depression?

 Summary: If you have a diagnosis for depression and need to find professional support, you’ll likely ask yourself – or someone you trust – this question: how long do I need to see a psychiatrist if I have depression?  There’s no universal answer to this question: how long you may need depends on a variety of factors specific to your situation.

Key Points:

• Your diagnosis is important: there are several distinct types of depression.
• Your symptom severity also plays a role: the frequency and severity of your symptoms affect how long you may need to see a psychiatrist for depression.
• How long you’ve experienced depressive symptoms plays a role: a longer duration of undiagnosed, untreated symptoms can increase the time you need to see a psychiatrist for depression.
• You mental health treatment history plays a role: previous treatment experience can extend or short the time you need to see a psychiatrist.

Everyone Is Unique: How Long You Need to See a Psychiatrist Depends on You

There’s no way to determine ahead of time how long your treatment will last. If someone gives you an answer like “exactly two months” to the question how long do I need to see a psychiatrist for depression, they’re just guessing: there’s no way to predict how long you’ll need professional support.

If a provider makes any guarantees about your length of treatment, we encourage you to find a provider who’ll give you the real answer, which is what we say above:

It depends on a variety of factors specific to your situation.

Let’s quickly review and expand on the key points above, because they matter. Things that affect how long you need to see a psychiatrist, in general, include the following.

How Long Do I Need to See a Psychiatrist If I Have Depression? Determining Factors

1. Your Specific Diagnosis.

• • You may receive a diagnosis for major depressive disorder (MDD), persistent depressive disorder (PDD), postpartum depression, treatment-resistant depression (TRD), seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or others. Though similar, each requires a tailored approach to treatment, with length of treatment varying between the types.

2. Disorder Severity.

• • When you experience mild or moderate symptoms that are not significantly disruptive to your daily life, you may require less total time and treatment compared to someone frequent, severe, disruptive symptoms that significantly impair function across important areas of life.

3. Previous Treatment Experience.

• • If you’ve never been in treatment for depression, and never engaged psychotherapy or tried a course of psychiatric medication, it can take time for the process to yield results, especially if your symptoms are severe. However, if you have mild depression, and respond well to medication, you may expect a shorter treatment duration – but that’s not guaranteed.

4. Duration of Symptoms.

• • If you’ve had symptoms of depression for years, you may need to see a psychiatrist for longer than someone who recently developed symptoms. In general, the longer you’ve had depressive symptoms, the longer it takes to learn to manage the- but again, nohig s guaranteed.

When we say nothing is guaranteed, here’s what we mean. If your symptoms are new, and relatively mild, you may expect a short treatment experience. However, during therapy, you may discover core issues you need to take time to resolve, and what you expected to be quick may take more time. On the other hand, if you’ve had symptoms for years and developed personal strategies to manage them, your psychiatrist may help you bolster those strategies to make them more effective, and conclude you have the tools you need, and what you expected to take a long time may take less time than you thought.

Everyone is different, every case of depression is different, which means the answer to the question how long do I need to see a psychiatrist if I have depression ultimately depends on you.

How Long Will it Take? Managing Expectations

The American Psychological Association (APA) published a report called “How Long Will it Take For Treatment to Work” advises patients in mental health treatment to consider the following factors when planning:

• You define success. At the beginning of the process, you collaborate with your psychiatrist to set treatment goals. Success is defined by meeting and/or exceeding the goals you set for yourself.
• At the beginning of the process, discussing and establishing a potential treatment length is important; make sure you do this.
• Based on how you respond to treatment, you may need to adjust your time estimates. If you’re making quick progress, you may shorten your estimate. But if you don’t meet your goals or experience satisfactory progress, you may need to lengthen your initial estimate.

In the APA report, treatment experts established reasonable estimates for length of treatment, based on sources provided by patients and providers. Here are their timeline estimates:

The APA: Estimates For Length of Treatment

1. 50% of patients in therapy report it takes between 15 and 20 sessions to achieve recovery, or just under six months of therapy once a week.
2. Patients engaging in a recent trend of brief intervention report it can take as few as 12 to 16 sessions to achieve recovery, or about three months of therapy once a week.
3. In general, providers and patients report it take between 20 and 30 sessions to achieve more complete remission and develop confidence in the skills required to maintain that remission.
4. For people with complex, chronic disorders, personality disorders, or co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders, a treatment duration of a year to a year and a half may be necessary to identify core issues and develop healthy coping skills to manage them.
5. In some cases, it may be necessary to engage in ongoing treatment – open ended, with no predetermined end-date – to keep momentum, build on progress, and mitigate the need for crisis intervention or hospitalization.

It’s also important to note that for some diagnoses, long-term medication management may be required to maintain an optimal neurochemical balance in the brain, in order to treat imbalances associated with the specific disorder or diagnosis.

Planning Your Treatment: You Matter, Perspective Matters

When thinking about mental health treatment, trying to plan, and wondering how long you’ll need to see a psychiatrist if you have depression, everyone involved – you, your psychiatrist, the people in your life – need to remember that healing and growth rarely happen on a perfectly predictable schedule.

Even recovering from a simple injury like a sprained ankle can involve minor complications or setbacks that mean you might be wearing that boot for two months rather than two weeks.

With conditions like depression that are complex by nature, affected by a variety of quantitative and qualitative factors, and typically require a period of trial and adjustment to find out what works, it’s essential to patient with yourself, kind to yourself, and not force anything. You are worth the time and effort it takes to learn how to manage your depression and live the life you want to live. If you seek professional support, we know you can do it, and we’re here to help.