Hello
Welcome to Health Care Magic

Your daughter is 24 and was having Major Depressive Episode. She is on Aripiprazole 15 mg daily and it presently stable.

See Depression is a mood disorder and it is an episodic illness. It tend to occur in episodes and length or duration of treatment depends upon the number of episodes.

If it was her first episode then usual guidelines say that Antidepressant medicines should be continued for at least 6-12 months after remission. Remission means patient come to his/her normal level after treatment.
If patient is in second episode then treatment is continued for about 12-18 months and for more than 2 episodes treatment is continued for more than 2 years. Maintenance treatment prevent the relapse of symptoms and also increase the duration of inter episode period. So I would advise you to continue her maintenance treatment even if she is apparently normal.

So I would like to know few details about her episode of depression in follow up question.

You can ask more queries in follow up question.

Thanks
Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi, MD

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Hello again

If she was properly diagnosed and she is having Depressive Illness then we can think of discontinuation of treatment. As she is on treatment for about 1 years and she is also improving and is almost symptom free then I would advise you to consult her doctor regarding decreasing the dose of drug and the taper it completely after about 6 months.

For the nature and kind of illness I need details and duration of her symptoms. What were main presenting symptoms? Whether she was feeling sad only or having other symptoms as suspiciousness, seeing or hearing things which other can't see or hear? Whether her behavior was inappropriate? Whether she showed any violent behavior? Whether she was having crying spells, lack of interest in any activity? Whether she was able to converse with you or others?
Give me details of symptoms so that I can tell you in more detail.

Thanks
Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi, MD

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