Rebecca

Meet Rebecca, a 47 year old woman diagnosed with MDD following her divorce a couple of years ago. SSRI treatment from her GP has offered some relief from her depressive symptoms but day-to-day life is still a struggle.

Since her husband left her, she has been struggling to keep her job at a marketing company due to the time she has had to have off sick due to her depression. She has 2 children who she is now looking after on her own with little help from her ex-husband, both financially and emotionally. He doesn’t understand her depression and tells her to “grow a backbone and just get on with it”.

She’s existing but not living. She feels that she’s no longer enjoying things that she used to.

Rebecca wants to be able to feel, think and do better again – so that she can feel reconnected with her children and succeed at work.

Worried about trying a new medication, which could put the gains she has made on prior SSRI therapy at risk – she doesn’t want to “take a step backwards” in her treatment.

She’s committed to her treatment, but needs something to help her regain control of her life.

Peter

Meet Peter, a 26 year old man with a history of childhood trauma, diagnosed with MDD a few years ago. Peter has recently lost his father and found the unexpected loss particularly traumatic and has been suffering with a number of depressive symptoms, including anxiety and forgetfulness.

Although Peter has been taking SSRIs for a while now, he’s found that the medication hasn’t helped him resolve the symptoms which bother him the most, so he’s been really struggling lately.

Peter used to work as a part-time care home worker, but he recently lost his job because he began forgetting important duties such as giving care-home residents the correct dose of their medication. He now lives at home with his mother, as he was unable to afford the rent on his studio flat.

In his spare time, Peter enjoys participating in his local amateur theatre group who run a play every summer, but the anxiety around forgetting his lines has meant that he’s dropped out of this year’s performance.

In the wake of his father’s death, Peter wants to be able to better manage his MDD and focus on improving his memory, so that he can get a job and focus on re-joining his theatre group.

Samantha

Meet Samantha, a 53 year old woman diagnosed with MDD who has just faced a relapse. When Samantha was first diagnosed with MDD, she was prescribed SSRIs, which provided her with some relief from her low mood and feelings of hopelessness.

However, after 3 months, she decided to stop taking them because they affected her libido and she struggled to enjoy sex,⁴ which had a negative effect on her sex life. This started to affect her relationship with her husband Robert.

After Samantha stopped taking her SSRI, she found that her libido slowly returned – but so did her depressive symptoms. Samantha wants to manage her MDD symptoms, but she doesn’t want her treatment to impact on her day-to-day life and relationship with Robert.