Aim: This work would give an overall and up-to-date vision of psychopharmacological and physical strategies of treatment for resistant depression.
Method: A PubMed search was done using the keywords "resistant depression treatment", "electroconvulsive therapy", "antidepressants", and the inclusion criteria of adult samples, English, French or Italian languages.
Results: Lots of psycho-pharmacological and physical treatment strategies for resistant depression exist; anyway there is no consensus about their indications and efficacy, which appears still unsatisfactory.
Discussion and conclusion: Further research should move towards the identification of specific clinical picture of treatment resistant depression to develop more efficacious and selective treatment protocols.