Understanding the Mental Illness of Depression

The discussion of what antidepressants are leads to an inevitable question: how do psychiatrists know that an increase in these particular chemicals will cure depression? The answer is, they do not. Currently, there is no cure for depression. In fact, depression is such a complicated disorder with so many possible contributing factors that modern medicine can only hope to treat the apparent chemical imbalance correlated with depression, alleviating some symptoms. This is the current medication treatment model for all of psychiatry: to produce a drug that treats what is currently believed to be the primary physical aspect of the disease (chemical imbalances in the brain). This is known as a disease-centered model of treatment and it explains why the psychiatric drugs are named things like antidepressants and antipsychotics. They are grouped by the chemical imbalances they are supposed to help. However, these drugs do not always result in an alleviation of symptoms for all patients. Like with any incurable disease, to help the patient, the doctors must focus on treating symptoms.

So what are the symptoms of depression?

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 
"Little interest or pleasure in doing things
Feeling down, depressed or hopeless
Trouble falling or staying asleep or sleeping too much
Feeling tired or having little energy
Poor appetite or overeating
Feeling bad about yourself, that you are a failure or have let yourself or your family down
Trouble concentrating on things, such as reading the newspaper or watching television
Moving or speaking so slowly that other people could have noticed or the opposite in that you are so fidgety or restless that you have been moving around a lot more than usual
and
Thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way"

Firstly, I would like to say, many people suffer from depression and if you find yourself relating to these symptoms for a period of more than two weeks, you should consult a doctor.

Next, I would like to reiterate that there is no question of depression being a real illness. Major depression is not simply someone being sad for a long period of time. It can affect anyone and has even been shown to be genetically predisposed in some cases. Unfortunately, modern medicine cannot provide a comprehensive cause of depression. For this reason, it is important to examine whether the current method of treating chemical imbalances is the ideal treatment method. Even the societal implications of that method are important. Just as some people believe that depression is not a "real" illness, other people believe that suffering from a chemical balance in the mind shows that something is inherently wrong with the depressed. This point of view is unfair. Mental illness is not as simple as a chemical imbalance, even if our medicinal tools are not yet complex enough to treat it any better. All mental illnesses are complex disorders that derive from a variety of causes that medicine does not yet even fully understand. It is important that the minority of those who suffer from mental illnesses are not isolated as they may have been in the past with the system of institutional psychiatry and asylums. As a society, we must be mindful of the risk of alienating those who suffer from mental illnesses. 


Moncrieff, Joanna, and David Cohen. "Psychiatric Drugs: Magic Bullets or Psychological Sledgehammers." The Critical Psychiatry Website. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.critpsynet.freeuk.com/models0904.htm>.


 "Depression Symptoms, Causes, and Diagnosis." National Alliance on Mental Illness. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Depression&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=89096>.