‘CBT and therapy helped us more than anti-depressants,’ say mental health patients as NICE guideline
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New draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommend people with depression should first be offered exercise before medication.
By Alannah Francis
People with lived experience of mental health conditions have welcomed new draft guidelines that recommend patients with ‘less severe depression’ should be offered exercise classes and counselling first before they are prescribed anti-depressants.
The advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) encourages patients to have access to a menu of options including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychotherapy as part of the first line of treatment.
For father-of-two James McWilliam, 26, who was diagnosed with depression with anxiety three years ago, anti-depressants were his GP’s first port of call.
Mr McWilliam, who found himself ‘feeling low and sad all the time’, sought help from his doctor after he started having suicidal thoughts.
‘I didn’t know how to contr...
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