Depression

I recently wrote a post on postpartum depression which has generated a certain amount of negative comment. For this reason, I thought it might be helpful to clarify some points. DEFINITION AND EXPLANATIONS The DSM makes no mention of postpartum depression as such. The closest it comes is major depressive disorder with postpartum onset. In other words, the APA conceptualizes postpartum depression as ordinary major depression (which can incidentally range in severity from mild to severe) which happens to occur in the postpartum period. This is in marked contrast to the popular notion that postpartum depression is somehow a function of the postpartum woman’s hormones, and is fundamentally different from other forms of depression. ...

BACKGROUND The primary purpose of the bio-psychiatric-pharma faction is to expand turf and sell more drugs. This is a multi-faceted endeavor, one component of which is disease mongering. This consists of using marketing techniques to persuade large numbers of people that they have an illness which needs to be treated with drugs. With regards to postpartum depression, it is an obvious fact that some mothers do indeed experience a measure of depression in the period after giving birth. The term postpartum depression has in the past been generally understood to mean that the problem had something to do with hormones. Today brain chemicals are blamed. ...

I recently wrote a post called: Do Major Tranquilizers Make Things Worse? The post was based on a study by Drs. Harrow and Jobe in which they speculated that the high relapse rate of “schizophrenics” who stop taking their drugs may have more to do with drug withdrawal than the supposed drug efficacy. Monica, at BeyondMeds, pointed out that these drugs should not be called tranquilizers because some of their effects (e.g. akathisia, tardive dyskinesia, etc.) are anything but tranquil. And this, of course, is a good point. ...

Today, courtesy of Talla Trialogue on Twitter, I have read an article by Shari Roan called Blood Test for Depression Proves It’s Not All In Your Head. You can see it here. The article appears to be an interview with Lonna Williams, the CEO of Ridge Diagnostics. This company is reportedly introducing a blood test for depression. The test is called MDDScore and is expected to cost $745. The article tells us that: “You get a numerical score that suggests how likely it is that you have depression. Studies show that MDD Score is about as accurate at making a diagnosis as the most rigorous evaluations.” ...

I’ve come across an article by Lisa Cosgrove et al entitled Conflicts of interest and the quality of recommendations in clinical guidelines. It was published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice in December of last year. As everyone knows, the APA publishes the DSM, but they also publish “Clinical Practice Guidelines” for various “diagnoses,” including the condition known as major depression. Dr. Cosgrove and her colleagues examined the guidelines for major depression to see if the authors had financial or intellectual conflicts of interest. An example of a financial conflict of interest would be recommending drug treatment when one is on the payroll of a drug company. An example of an intellectual conflict of interest would be relying on and citing a poor quality study in support of a position in which one had a stake. ...

DELICATE THINGS REQUIRE DELICATE HANDLING When I was a teenager, one of my hobbies was making small transistor radios. It sounds complicated, but is well within the reach of an average 15-year-old. You get some magazine articles, learn how to read a circuit, and learn how to use a soldering iron. A transistor is a small device – about half the size of a pencil eraser – with three wires coming out of it. In building a radio receiver, the transistors have to be soldered to other devices which are in turn soldered to other devices, etc… The soldering iron is plugged into a wall outlet, but no mains electricity reaches the tip of the iron. However, tiny eddy currents can circulate in the tip, and although they are only of the order of milliamps, they can burn a transistor in seconds. What you have to do is unplug the iron from the socket, make the joint with the tip’s retained heat, and then replug the iron to have it ready for the next joint. The point being that delicate things require delicate handling, and that electricity can be very destructive. ...

On March 5, 2013, a bipartisan panel of leading mental health experts and parents of children with “mental disorders” held a conversation (that’s newspeak for meeting) in Washington D.C. on the topic: Violence and Severe Mental Illness. The invited panelists were: Thomas Insel, MD, Director of NIMH Harold Koplewicz, MD, President of Child Mind Institute E. Fuller Torrey, MD, Founder of Treatment Advocacy Center Michael Welner, MD, Founder and Chairman of The Forensic Panel Michael Fitzpatrick, MSW, Director of NAMI And three parents of "diagnosed" children ...

I came across an interesting article Psychiatric Medication or Play Therapy? by Bob Fiddaman, a New Zealand writer. The article compares the efficacy and dangers of play therapy vs. pharmaceutical products for children with various problems. Here are some quotes: "…play therapy outcome studies support the efficacy of this intervention with children suffering from various emotional and behavioral difficulties." "Pharmaceutical companies spend billions on marketing psychiatric medication." "Front groups that purport to fly the mental health flag are, in fact, nothing more than agents, pimps for the pharmaceutical industry." ...

Another interesting article: Academic Integrity in Ireland and the UK: Is there any such thing? at Leonie fennells’ Blog. It’s about financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists. Same old story; different location. It’s worth a look. Thanks to Becky @yobluemama2 on Twitter for drawing my attention to this.

This post was updated on March 22, 2015 to incorporate suggestions from a reader. Recently I was asked by an acquaintance for some suggestions for dealing with a bout of depression. As I was writing these out it occurred to me that the material might have some general interest, so I decided to publish it as a new post. Over the years I have worked with a great many people who expressed concerns about dealing with depression. These are the suggestions I gave these individuals which I believe were the most helpful: ...