Advanced Depression Treatment Center

Welcome to the Advanced Depression Treatment (ADEPT) Center at the University of Maryland. We provide specialized care for adults (18 and older) who have treatment-resistant depression.

What Is Treatment-Resistant Depression?

Depression is considered “treatment-resistant” (or “difficult-to-treat”) when there’s an inadequate response to at least two antidepressant trials of adequate dose and duration.

About 30–40% of people being treated for depression have treatment-resistant depression. It can significantly impact daily life and relationships.

  • “My experience with ADEPT has been life-changing! It’s not just the treatment, however, that has provided such a positive experience—it has been the professionalism and empathy of the entire team.”
    Francesca
    Spravato/esketamine patient

We’re Here to Help: Call 410-328-8415

We understand how discouraging and hopeless it can feel when traditional antidepressants aren’t working, and you don’t know what to do about it. At ADEPT, you can receive the specialized care you need.

We offer advanced treatment options such as Spravato/esketamine and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). These treatments have high success rates: 70% of patients report feeling significant improvement, and 40% of patients feel like themselves again.

Multidisciplinary Team Provides Tailored Treatment

Our specialized team comprises technicians, nurses, social workers, and physicians. We take the time to get to know you so we can develop a treatment plan that is tailored to your specific needs.

Our goal is to help you tackle treatment-resistant depression with the latest treatment options. We work with you and your current provider so you can get back to enjoying life to the fullest.

We take a thorough approach, offering:

  • Expert evaluation
  • Personalized treatment
  • Advanced medication management
  • Brain stimulation therapies

Want to learn more about ADEPT?

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you are currently working with a healthcare provider to treat your depression but it hasn’t improved, talk with your provider about a referral to us. You can also call us directly.

To schedule a consultation or make a referral, call 410-328-8415.

Location
Walter P. Carter Center
701 W. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

  • “I’m thrilled that the Advanced Depression Treatment Center at the University of Maryland helps me work through complicated psychiatric cases. They see my referred patients in a timely manner and provide thorough evaluations and reports.”
    Terry P. Detrich, MD
    Neurologist in Easton, MD

FAQs About Difficult-to-Treat Depression and ADEPT

Traditional antidepressants focus on deficits in the chemicals that help regulate your mood, alertness, and sense of pleasure. But if these medications aren’t working for you, then your brain might need something different.

The newer, advanced treatments that we offer work differently, not only in terms of chemistry, but also on different parts of your brain.

Spravato is also called intranasal esketamine. It’s a nasal spray that works by affecting the activity of neurotransmitters in your brain, which helps balance your mood.

This medication usually gives you the pleasant experience of feeling a little dissociative and pensive. We monitor you for two hours after you receive Spravato, and we make sure that all side effects are gone before you leave.

Yes, we offer transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which is not a medication.

TMS is an external, painless treatment that is NOT a medication. It uses a high-level magnet to target the part of your brain that might be under-stimulated. The magnetic stimulus sits on the surface of your scalp. Your brain then converts that magnetic energy to chemical energy, which ultimately affects your brain’s mood centers.

During a treatment session, you will feel a tapping sensation for four seconds, followed by 11 seconds of non-tapping. That continues for 19 minutes. During those 19 minutes, we like to interact and chat with you. This provides you the additional therapeutic benefit of engaging meaningfully on a regular basis with someone who cares about you. TMS treatments are usually given five days a week for six weeks.

Yes, the treatments that we offer are approved by the FDA. They are safe, effective, evidence-based treatments. They are not experimental.

We accept most insurances, including Medicaid and Medicare. If you meet the criteria to receive advanced depression treatment (i.e., your depression doesn’t significantly improve after at least two antidepressant trials of adequate dose and duration), then your insurance company may cover your treatment for Spravato or TMS (but not both at the same time).

We accept adults (18 and older) who haven’t responded to at least two antidepressant trials of adequate dose and duration. We start with a thorough consult to learn about your history and background, including all the medications that you’ve tried. Then we’ll consider newer treatment options that might be more effective for you.

We don’t take over your patient care. We work with your provider to give you the best treatment possible. After we do a consult, we’ll send a copy of the report to your provider. And if you decide to receive treatment at ADEPT, then we’ll provide regular updates to your provider.