Tabara MF. Addressing social function in the treatment of depression: A call for holistic approaches. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(2): 102658 [PMID: 39974494 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i2.102658]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Muhammed Fatih Tabara, Assistant Professor, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Firat University School of Medicine, Yahya Kemal Caddesi, Elazig 23200, Türkiye. mftabara@firat.edu.tr
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Feb 19, 2025; 15(2): 102658 Published online Feb 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i2.102658
Addressing social function in the treatment of depression: A call for holistic approaches
Muhammed Fatih Tabara
Muhammed Fatih Tabara, Department of Psychiatry, Firat University School of Medicine, Elazig 23200, Türkiye
Author contributions: Tabara MF carried out all processes related to the literature search, design and writing of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author reports no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Muhammed Fatih Tabara, Assistant Professor, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Firat University School of Medicine, Yahya Kemal Caddesi, Elazig 23200, Türkiye. mftabara@firat.edu.tr
Received: October 25, 2024 Revised: November 30, 2024 Accepted: December 19, 2024 Published online: February 19, 2025 Processing time: 81 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract
This article discusses the importance of addressing social functioning impairment in patients with residual depressive symptoms, as highlighted in the study by Liao et al. The authors showed that social dysfunction persists in many patients despite symptom remission. This observation calls for a shift in depression treatment strategies, with an emphasis on integrating social functioning as a key treatment goal. This article suggests targeted interventions that focus on both symptomatic relief and the restoration of social function.
Core Tip: Many patients continue to experience residual depressive symptoms even when they are in remission. Addressing social dysfunction as an important therapeutic goal along with symptom relief can improve recovery outcomes in depression treatment. Holistic approaches that integrate pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and lifestyle interventions have the potential to improve patients’ social functioning and overall quality of life.
