Novel strategies for treatment-resistant depression.

This article describes a highly selective constellation of the more unique strategies for managing the treatment-resistant patient. In light of the often-devastating toll that treatment-resistant depression takes on an individual's life, it behooves us to continue the search for more effective strategies for those patients that fail more traditional interventions. As each successive move down the treatment algorithm flowchart becomes necessary, the risk/benefit ratio may shift toward less well-substantiated, but still biologically informed, strategies. Although some of the more unusual treatments described in this article represent minimally charted territories, the more promising techniques are deserving of further careful exploration.