EN
The present work provide an overview of the various concepts of treatment for depressive disorders ranging from antiquity up to the present day. In the early days depression was perceived as a punishment from the gods, the result of bad behavior, guilt or sin. Treatment methods were signifi cantly different from those used today and did not produce the expected results, and the patients them selves were often stigmatized and excluded from society. Searching an effective remedy for depression has led to the discovery of the fi rst drug known as antidepressant – isoniazid and introduction into pharmacotherapy. Over the years, new therapeutic substances with different chemical structures and mechanisms of action have emerged. Studies on an effective drug with few undesirable side effects continues to this day. It has been proved turns out that the drugs used today are not as perfect as they might seem, and modern pharmacotherapy can not be evaluated as satisfactory for both professionals and their patients. Actually, new therapeutic substances are still in clinical trials. Moreover, many professionals begins to be more attentive to non-pharmacological methods in the treatment of depression. Some doctors consider that new neuromodulation techniques are the future of treatment of such disorders. However, most of them, apart from electroshock, still belong to experimental methods.