Posted by linkadge on May 17, 2010, at 20:00:40
In reply to Re: History of depression - um? » sigismund, posted by ed_uk2010 on May 15, 2010, at 16:55:11
And - in selling an illness you need to make the prognosis (for a disease without treatment) as sounding as bad as possible.
Something like 15% of the U.S. population is on antidepressants. I don't believe that this 15% would all commit suicide if their depression happened not to be treated with drugs. Infact, depending on the data you choose to look at, suicide rates have not dropped significantly since the introduction of antidepressants.
People would suffer, but for most depressions, the disease dose remit after 8-12 months. Then, typically the patient would be better for extended periods. Even in our "family history" of depression, those who didn't treat usually had 2-3 episodes in a lifetime. Yet, they were absolutely *fine* between epsiodes.
Nowadays, we are on the meds for life. Just because we have had an epsiode or two. Most of use just can't get off the drugs or don't want to get off the drugs.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:946874
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100514/msgs/947747.html