Conventional antidepressants and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatment modalities target areas of the brain that are known to be implicated in the pathoetiology of major depression, including the hippocampus, hypothalamus, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex. Cognitive behavioural therapy, meditation, yoga, religion and spirituality, exercise and social networks, have been shown to reduce psychological stress and/or cognitive dysfunction and thus may contribute to reducing allostatic load. Approaches that are more holistic in nature alleviate allostatic overload by stimulating the brain and body to help restore normal functioning and well-being. Management approaches that integrate several treatment modalities including pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and CAMs, could therefore transcend the multiple levels of behavioural habits, lifestyle, neurocircuitry and psychosocial functioning implicated in depression, thereby offering patients the best chance at recovery.
