Volume 3    February 10, 2010          Number  6

DREAM AGAIN JOURNAL ONLINE

CAN WE BE TRUTHFUL

Sharon Begley wrote in the February 8, 2010 issue of Newsweek that antidepressants “are basically little more than expensive Tic Tacs.” The article does go on to point out that antidepressants seem to benefit people with severe depression, but one of the coauthors of the study says, “Why that should be remains a mystery.”

“True drug effects (an advantage of [antidepressant medication] over placebo) were nonexistent to negligible among depressed patients with mild, moderate, and even severe baseline symptoms, whereas they were large for patients with very severe symptoms,” wrote Jay Fournier, M.A., in the January 6 Journal of the American Medical Association.

This raises a more fundamental question. What does the word depression mean? What do we mean by the words mental illness? Mental illness is used to cover such a broad spectrum of symptoms that in reality the two words do not communicate anything of real value to the other person you say them to. The same is true of depression. If a person simply says I am depressed, the other person knows little about the condition the person is speaking about.

For Newsweek to publish an article with such imprecise language about such an important subject is irresponsible. There isn’t a blood test or any other precise medical test to determine the degree of a person’s depression. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale are commonly used tests to determine the severity of a person’s depression, but they mostly have to rely on the truthfulness, reliability, and insightfulness of the person taking the test.

I have never met anyone who could tell me just how depressed I was unless I wanted them to know. Since mental health professionals have an obligation to act if you are so depressed you might be suicidal or homicidal, ask yourself just how honest do you think patients are depending on whether they want in a hospital or to stay out of the hospital. Folks needing the help of mental health professionals need a more level playing field. A place were someone is willing to participate with us in trying to help us along a very rough road, but what we don’t need is anymore doctors acting like dictators or anymore writers pretending to be physicians.

You can reach me directly at edcooper@projectdreamagain.com

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