Depression in the News 2002

Patch Raises New Hope For Beating Depression. New York Times. December 3, 2002. By Mary Duffy. MAO (monamine oxidase) inhibitors were the first type of antidepressants. For many people they remain the best hope for relief from major depression. They are said to be extremely effective. However, great care is needed when MAO inhibitors are taken orally. The side effects can be so serious that MAO inhibitors are rarely prescribed. A study suggests that by administering the MAO inhibitor selegiline in patch form, patients can receive the antidepressant benefits without the usual side effects. Inhibiting the production of the MAO enzyme in the brain is believed to lead to an increased supply of neurotransmitters. The study of 177 patients also found a 94% compliance rate for those on the patch. Compliance rates with oral antidepressants are much lower. 

 Newsweek Magazine. December 19, 2002. Dr. Ian Smith. Millions of Americans suffer from seasonal depression and don’t know it. For those with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the holiday season often brings sadness, not smiles. Despite the timing, SAD should not be confused with the winter blahs. Everyone with SAD doesn’t experience the same symptoms. But common signs include a change in appetite (especially cravings for sweet or starchy food), weight gain, a heavy feeling in the arms or legs, fatigue, a tendency to oversleep, difficulty concentrating, irritability, headaches, an avoidance of social situations and a loss of interest in sex.  

U.S. News and World Report magazine. December 16, 2002 issue. By Marianne Szegedy-Maszak. Medical researchers are studying the interrelatedness of mental depression and various diseases. This article is not freely available. The magazine charges $2.95 to read a single article.  

The cover story of the December 2, 2002 issue of Newsweek Magazine is about Alternative Medicine. Two related articles in the magazine touch on mood disorders. Natural Mood Remedies: Insights from Harvard Medical School and How to Lift The Mind: For those suffering from the pain of anxiety and depression, complementary medicine is no miracle cure. But some treatments offer real hope.  

BOOKS ON HEALTH;  2 Perspectives on Suicide by John Langone in the New York Times. November 19, 2002. A review of two books: 

• ''No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One,'' by Carla Fine, Broadway Books, $12.95. 
   
• ''How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person's Guide to Suicide Prevention,'' by Susan Rose Blauner, William Morrow, $24.95. 
  
  

The Infinite Mind focuses on the art and science of the human mind and spirit, behavior, and mental health. It currently airs on more than 170 public radio stations and is produced in association with WNYC/NY. In New York City the show airs on WNYC (820 AM, 93.9 FM) at 7 a.m. on Sundays.  The shows can be heard over the Internet at any time using real audio software. Recent depression related shows are listed below. 

• Surviving Suicide (Broadcast starting December 4, 2002) For people who have lost a family member or friend to suicide, grief is often complicated by feelings of anger, shame, fear and guilt. Dr. Goodwin's guests in this encore presentation include Dr. Donna Barnes, president and founder of the National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide; Dr. David Clark, director of the Center for Suicide Research and Prevention at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago; Dr. David Brent, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Mary Kluesner and Al Kluesner, cofounders of Suicide Awareness: Voices of Education; and 2000 United States Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz
• Mental Illness in the Family Week of June 29, 2002 
  If someone in your family has mental illness, may be feeling frustration, anger, helplessness. What does the latest research say about how you can help yourself ... and your loved one in the process. Dr. Fred Goodwin speaks with Dr. David Miklowitz, author of The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know; Dr. William Beardslee, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Boston's Children's Hospital, and author of Out of the Darkened Room: Protecting the Children and Strengthening the Family When a Parent is Depressed; Julie Totten, founder of Families for Depression Awareness and Rose Styron, wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Styron who has written about his own bouts with depression. 
• The Golden Years? Mental Health and the Elderly  Week of May 22, 2002
• The Hidden Cost of Mental Illness  Week of May 15, 2002
• Surviving Suicide  Week of  May 8, 2002

Young and Depressed Young And Depressed  Newsweek Magazine. Cover Story. October 7, 2002 issue. As teen depression comes out of the closet, it’s getting easier to spot—and sufferers can hope for a brighter future.   Most of the nearly 3 million adolescents struggling with depression never get the help they need because of prejudice about mental illness, inadequate mental-health resources and widespread ignorance about how emotional problems can wreck young lives ... The NIMH estimates that 8 percent of adolescents have symptoms of depression. Scientists say that early onset of depression in children and teenagers has become increasingly common; some even use the word “epidemic”... Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds.  The magazine's coverage also includes these two related articles:   Advice: ‘It’s Hard for Parents To Understand’ In a new book, Dr. Harold Koplewicz helps families sort out normal adolescent irritability from real illness. As the founder and director of the New York University Child Study Center, Dr. Harold Koplewicz has seen firsthand the pain that depression brings to families. His new book, “More Than Moody: Recognizing and Treating Adolescent Depression,” describes current therapeutic approaches and new research, which he discusses with Newsweek's Barbara Kantrowitz. On Campus: The Doctors Are ‘In’ College therapists say they’re seeing more kids asking for help. But they worry most about the ones they can’t reach. Counselors and psychologists at the nation’s colleges and universities are doing more to try to help the rising numbers of students they see with clinical depression ... The highly publicized suicide of Elizabeth Shin at MIT in 2000 and an ensuing lawsuit brought against the school by her parents have caused school officials around the country to re-examine their policies about when parents will be notified of their child’s mental health.

Buying Your Pills Online May Save You Money, But Who's Selling Them? The New York Times. September 29, 2002. By Sana Siwolop. Quoting from the article: "Some studies have found that Internet shoppers can save 25 percent on the cost of prescription drugs, but the California State Board of Pharmacy found that some drugs cost up to five times as much on the Internet as they did at the local pharmacy ...  Thousands of Americans are now regularly doing business online with Canadian pharmacies. The laws governing the sale of prescription drugs by foreign pharmacies to American consumers are murky ... In the United States, federal law prohibits online pharmacies from dispensing prescription drugs without a prescription but does not specifically bar the pharmacies from prescribing drugs based on online consultations or medical questionnaires ... Twenty two states, including New York, have rules that essentially require a physical exam before an online prescription can be filled. Enforcement of these rules is growing, but online pharmacies that bypass ordinary doctor visits are still rampant on the Internet."  The article talks about assorted complaints with online pharmacies and some of the oversight groups. Among them is the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy which lists twelve online pharmacies that have passed a voluntary certification program.  alternate link

A somewhat related article in the New York Times on September 24, 2002 called Some Retirees Look Abroad for Prescription Drugs said that when consumers buy drugs online, they may not know where the drugs come from and have, in the past, been sold recycled, counterfeit and stale (past the expiration date) drugs. 

The October 7, 2002 issue of Business Week magazine has an article in the Lifestyle section called Make Your PDA a Health Partner. Among the topics mentioned is a program for a Palm Pilot called On-Time-Rx that beeps when it's time to take medicine. More than just beeping however, the program also can record which doses you took and which you forgot. It can even remind you to refill a prescription. See a sample of the pop-up reminder screen (opens in new window). The program has three built-in snoozes for each alarm event. If you don't hear the alarm the first time, it will sound again in 10 minutes. This will repeat 2 more times. If you don't respond to any of the alarms within an hour, the medication is logged as a "missed" dose. The program is from AmeliaPlex. It sells for $20 and there is a free 30 day trial. It works on any device running the Palm OS version 3.1 or higher. For more information see www.ontimerx.com.   

August 27, 2002. The New York Times. By Richard A. Friedman, M.D. Some people prefer psychotherapy to pharmacotherapy because it is more "natural". New evidence suggests that the talking cure and psychotropic medication have much more in common than had been thought. Both produce surprisingly similar changes in the brain. PET scans of patients with OCD found that those taking an S.S.R.I and those on cognitive-behavior therapy both showed virtually the same changes in their brain. Similar results have been show for patients with depression.  

August 27, 2002. Associated Press. Soon U.S. psychiatrists will be able to prescribe a new antidepressant called Lexapro. It's being promoted as more potent and possibly safer than older competitors - but there's little evidence that it's much better. Lexapro is expected to be a big player in the antidepressant market. But how do patients and doctors choose whether to try it or another of the bewildering array of depression drugs? "You're playing the odds," is the blunt way Dr. Philip Ninan of Emory University puts it: Each antidepressant comes with a different set of pros and cons, and there's little way to know in advance which will work best for which patient. 

Time Magazine. Cover Story. The August 19, 2002 issue. Inside the volatile world of the young and bipolar. It used to be called manic depression. Now this volatile form of mental illness is increasingly showing up in children and teenagers. Why? Note that this link is to a page devoted to the cover story and has links to multiple related stories in the magazine on the subject. Altogether, there were four articles regarding bipolar disorder in children in this issue.

July 30, 2002. The New York Times. By Susan Freinkel. The social stigma surrounding mental illness may have eased, but many insurers are still reluctant to issue individual policies to people with a psychiatric history -- be it depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. A record of treatment for any of those conditions can make a person ineligible for long-term disability insurance and complicate efforts to obtain health insurance. Attitudes toward mental illness vary by insurance carrier. There are no statistics on how many people have been refused insurance because of psychiatric histories. But with an estimated 9 million to 10 million Americans each year dealing with depressive disorders and 28 million taking antidepressants, the problem occurs often enough to trouble mental health professionals. People with bipolar disorder, or manic depression, can have a particularly hard time.

June 30, 2002. The New York Times. Front Page. By Erica Goode. Antidepressants are the second largest class of prescription drugs, their sales exceeded only by heart medications. However, the euphoria that greeted the arrival of the generation of drugs that Prozac heralded has faded. Certainly, millions of people are helped by antidepressants, with some studies indicating that 35 to 45 percent of those who take them experience complete relief from their symptoms. But millions more, 55 to 65 percent, are not helped nearly enough. While some people experience no side effects, others suffer side effects that make the drugs unusable — or simply not worth the trouble. Many patients end up on a merry-go-round of medication trials, switching repeatedly from one drug to another or combining drugs to maximize their effects. 

June 25, 2002. The New York Times. By Richard A. Friedman. Discussing a review of 52 clinical studies, the author warns that researchers may mistakenly conclude that placebos are as effective as antidepressants. In only 48% of the reviewed studies, the antidepressant was superior to the placebo. However, this should not lead to the conclusion that antidepressants are, on average, no better than placebos for treating depression. Depressed people who enroll in antidepressant clinical trials are a very select group and not representative of depressed patients in general. For one thing, they tend to be only moderately depressed. The more severely depressed people are, the less likely they are to respond to a placebo. And people with mild depressions get better with just about all treatments, including placebos. Also, the placebo effect is short-lived, while depression tends to be a chronic illness. Patients who continue on placebos have more than double the risk of relapse to depression than those who stay on antidepressant medication.

The Mind: Magnets That Move Moods New treatment for depression. Newsweek magazine, June 24, 2002 issue. Magnetic fields placed around the brain can alter its electrical impulses. Magnets applied to the frontal cortex, can change emotions. Almost 2,000 patients have undergone trials using “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS) to treat depression that doesn’t respond to drugs. The patients see improvements after three weeks. TMS is considered a possible replacement for shock therapy. Unlike ECT, TMS has no known side effects and is practically painless. However, TMS is still experimental, and it’s a long way from FDA approval. 

The June 10, 2002 issue of Time Magazine focused on Anxiety and included three related stories. 
The Science of Anxiety is the cover story. Why do we worry ourselves sick? Because the brain is hardwired for fear, and sometimes it short-circuits. Learn what scientists have discovered about how your brain is wired for fear. 
Are You Too Anxious? The five most common types of anxiety disorders. 
What You Can Do The best ways to relieve anxiety. 

June 18, 2002. The New York Times. Vital Signs column, by Eric Nagourney. Doctors who give patients antidepressants usually have to wait weeks to find out if the drugs will have any effect. A new study has found that patients who will benefit from antidepressants may show telltale changes in the electrical activity of their brains weeks before they enjoy any relief from their symptoms. Both Prozac and Effexor, which work in different ways, had similar and almost immediate effects on the prefrontal part of the brains in the patients who eventually felt better. The brain changes were measured by EEG (electroencephalogram) and doctors may use it when they want to try new drugs for severely depressed patients who fail to respond to a first antidepressant, to avoid wasting weeks. 
Brain scan helps track depression. One-hour procedure may predict whether drugs are working. June 11, 2002. Reuters. The story says that up to 40 percent of depressed patients do not respond to the first medication they try and that doctors often wait six to 12 weeks to decide that a particular medication isn’t working for a patient. 
Note: Dr. Ivan Goldberg, the medical advisor to MDSG, warns that this study is as yet unconfirmed. He notes that many findings that sound initially promising never pan out when other investigators try to confirm them. In time, he says, this technique may or may not be found to be useful. 

Update: This topic was also covered in Business Week Magazine, the June 9, 2003 issue in the Developments to Watch column. The article said that matching a patient to a particular drug was a matter of trial and error and that it can take six weeks or more to determine if a drug is working. UCLA scientists are using highly detailed EEG scans to study brain changes brought about by anti-depressants. Their new software detects minute changes in the brain that are missed by normal EEG scans. The researchers reported that they could accurately predict which patients would respond to treatment within a week. 

May 21, 2002. Associated Press. A federal task force recommended that all adults be screened for depression during regular visits with their doctors, saying as many as half of all cases are missed and others are mistreated. An estimated 20 million Americans suffer from depression, and the task force noted that the nation's primary care doctors could begin to identify as many as 90 percent of cases by asking questions about depression. 

By Karen S. Peterson, USA TODAY May 21, 2002. Two new studies shed light on the alarming increase in cases of mental illness on college campuses. One study of 701 students found that 14% showed significant depressive symptoms, and half of them could qualify as having major depression. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) pays special attention to college students and mental illness on its Web site, www.nimh.nih.gov. 

ABC News. May 21, 2002. by Melinda T. Willis. The next time you visit your primary-care physician, you might be asked some very different questions about your health due to an independent panel of experts that is recommending physicians screen all adult patients for depression. Mental-health experts applaud the move, saying it is time for mental-health conditions to be considered genuine contributors to medical concerns. However, others worry the proposed screening might not go far enough. An expert is quoted as saying that at least half of all depressions are not currently diagnosed. Depression is often unrecognized or misinterpreted by those experiencing it. People with depression often complain of headaches, insomnia, lack of appetite and feeling weak, which they may not connect with their mental state. Depression is important to recognize because it can worsen existing medical conditions and even increase the risk of death. 
This story was also covered in the Washington Post on May 21, 2002 by Shankar Vedantam. Asking all patients walk into doctors offices for tests, physicals and appointments two simple questions about whether they have experienced some of the warning signs of depression can swiftly begin to identify 90 percent of people who suffer from major depression. The recommendation is the latest manifestation of the growing recognition that depression is one of the most common and most commonly undiagnosed and untreated chronic illnesses. About 19 million American adults suffer from depression, and estimates suggest that as many as two-thirds do not get treatment.  

Psychiatric Drug Found Tampered With. May 8, 2002. Associated Press. Eli Lilly is warning that tampering has been discovered on a few bottles of the psychiatric drug Zyprexa. Nearly 9 million patients have been treated with Zyprexa over the last five years. The company said that bottles have been found in which some pills were replaced with white tablets marked "aspirin." The first tampered bottle was discovered in Minnesota in January. Two more bottles turned up last week in separate pharmacies in different parts of Wisconsin. Zyprexa 10 mg tablets are round and white, similar to aspirin. But they are clearly marked in blue with the word, "Lilly" and the number, "4117" on one side, and no markings on the other side. Zyprexa 15 mg tablets are oval-shaped and blue and embossed with the word, "Lilly" and the number, "4415." 
Lilly confirms more cases of Zyprexa tampering  May 31, 2002  Reuters Health. None of the tampered Zyprexa bottles has reached consumers. 

Smoke Gets In Your Mind April 12, 2002 New Scientist. A controversial new study shows that smoking may, quite literally, drive you to despair. It may worsen or even trigger anxiety disorders, panic attacks and depression, perhaps even schizophrenia. People who are depressed or anxious are twice as likely to smoke, and up to 88 percent of those with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are smokers. The usual story is that the mental illness comes first. Mentally ill people take up smoking, or smoke more, to alleviate some of their distress. Even when smoking seems to start before the illness, most doctors believe that early but invisible symptoms of the disorder spark the desire to light up. However, a growing band of researchers claim that smoking is the cause, not the consequence of clinical depression and several forms of anxiety. The article describes a number of studies that indicate this. Many smokers say they become anxious when they quit, not when they smoke. But this is a short-lived effect of withdrawal which masks the reality that, in general, smokers have higher anxiety levels than nonsmokers or ex-smokers. 

Pregnant or nursing women may be able to reduce their chances of developing postpartum depression and improve the neurological development of their babies by increasing their consumption of the essential fatty acid DHA. DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid mostly found in fish like tuna and salmon and in algae. Approximately 15-20 percent of women who give birth in the United States develop postpartum depression. DHA has been recognized as beneficial to infants, but there has been less public awareness of the apparent link between DHA and postpartum depression. Fatty Acid Could Offset Postpartum Depression And Improve Babies' Development April 9, 2002. American Chemical Society. 

April 10, 2002. A study, the largest clinical trial performed to date, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that herbal supplement St. John's Wort (Hypericum) is no more effective at treating moderately severe depression than a placebo. Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center tested the effects of an extract of Hypericum perforatum (St. John's Wort) known as LI-160 against both a placebo and Zoloft. The researchers tracked 340 patients suffering from clinically diagnosed, moderately severe depression for a minimum of eight weeks. The study found that depression improved after eight weeks in 32 percent of patients treated with a placebo, versus 24 percent of those taking St. John’s Wort and 25 percent treated with Zoloft. The study focused on one well-characterized extract of St. John's Wort. Many are marketed and the active ingredient of H. perforatum remains unclear. Read more in Scientific American,  Science Daily, the San Francisco Chronicle, and MSNBC. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has a web page for St. John's Wort Clinical Trials

St. John's Wort appears to interfere with Camptosar, a common cancer drug. This is consistent with previous studies that showed St. John's Wort interferes with an enzyme the body uses to break down about half of all drugs. Because of this, St. John's Wort is believed to inhibit many of the most widely prescribed medicines. Camptosar is used to treat many kinds of cancer. In a study of 5 patients it was found that  St. John's Wort decreased the blood levels of Camptosar by about 40 percent. Despite the small size of the study, experts said the findings are believable. April 9, 2002 The Associated Press

March 28, 2002. The Associated Press. Researchers studying the psychological effect of the events of Sept. 11 on New Yorkers estimated that more than 150,000 residents suffered post-traumatic stress disorder or depression following the World Trade Center attack. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said that 9.7 percent of those living in the southern part of Manhattan reported symptoms the researchers defined as depression. Symptoms of depression can include loss of interest in life, loss of appetite, sleeping irregularities, trouble concentrating and feelings of guilt or worthlessness. 

March 27, 2002. The Associated Press. New research published in the journal Nature, suggests that the neurotransmitter serotonin appears to be implicated in regulating anxiety. Mice lacking serotonin early in life when their brains were rapidly developing displayed anxious behaviors as adults. In contrast, mice that were deprived of serotonin only as adults did not show similar effects. This suggests there is an early window during which serotonin is necessary to establish the proper brain circuitry that is essential for normal emotional behavior throughout life. These findings in mice may be relevant to anxiety disorders in people. Serotonin levels have been linked to depression and migraine headaches. 

March 19, 2002. The American Psychological Association has issued a new report on women and depression. More than 19 million Americans suffer from depression yearly and women are twice as likely as men to experience a major depressive episode. Depression may occur at any age during a woman's life with certain events like puberty, pregnancy, perimenopause, trauma, substance abuse and quality of relationships increasing the risk, according to the leading authorities on the etiologies and treatments for depression. The report is Summit on Women and Depression: Proceedings and Recommendations. . By reviewing the latest research on depression, experts offer explanations on the possible causes of depression and recommend how current research findings can be incorporated into health care practices. Major depression can impair a person's social and physical functioning even more severely than serious medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes or arthritis. It was found that depression presents the greatest disease burden for women when compared with other diseases. 

March 6, 2002. A new drug assistance plan was announced by Eli Lilly and Co. Called LillyAnswers, it makes low-income seniors with no drug insurance eligible for a month's supply of any Lilly retail drug for $12 each. The plan is open to seniors enrolled in Medicare with no prescription drug coverage and annual incomes below $18,000, or $24,000 for couples. These limits are the same as a similar plan from Pfizer. It is estimated that a year's worth of Prozac retails for about $1,000. Under this plan, the Prozac can be had for $144 a year, a savings of $856. In addition to depression, Lilly offers drugs for osteoporosis, diabetes, and schizophrenia (Zyprexa). In October 2001 GlaxoSmithKline announced the first drug industry discount card and Novartis followed in November 2001. Pfizer announced a $15 a month plan for its drugs in January 2002. For more, read the Associated Press, the New York Times, a press release from Eli Lilly or visit the web site for LillyAnswers. 

Bipolar II was officially recognized by the psychiatric profession as an illness only seven years ago.  Bipolar II's symptoms can be hard to recognize. Unlike bipolar I, formerly known as manic depression, the hyper-energetic happy swings are not so pronounced. Few psychiatrists and even fewer family physicians know how to differentiate it from classic depression. A wrong diagnosis can be deadly, experts say. Prescribing antidepressants like Prozac instead of mood stabilizers like Lithium can actually intensify the depression, and can lead to suicide. March 4, 2002. By Jen Farley of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. 

Newsweek Magazine March 11, 2002 Cover story. By Sharon Begley. A popular movie and a murder trial bring this tragic disease to light. How can the voices sound so real? Two and a half million Americans have schizophrenia, the cause of which, is largely unknown. 

The U.S. District Court has opened a breach in the wall that has long separated coverage of physical and mental illnesses in insurance policies. In Fitts v. Federal National Mortgage Association Judge Harold H. Kennedy ruled that Fannie Mae and Unum Life Insurance Company of America improperly classified an employee's bipolar disorder (manic depression) as a mental rather than physical illness, which subjected her to a 24-month limit in benefits. A NAMI lawyer said "What is most important is that the court weighed science-based factors in reaching its decision. Mental illnesses are brain disorders. They have fundamentally physical causes. Insurance companies cannot arbitrarily ignore the reality of the mind-body connection."

This precedent has implications for both health and long-term disability insurance. In making his decision, the judge examined brain scans that indicated abnormal atrophy or brain wave activity on the left and right sides of the brain. Also considered, were physical changes affecting the plaintiff (Fitts) as a result of the illness including headaches, chest pains and insomnia. In addition, Fitts provided the court with a declaration from Frederick T. Goodwin, M.D. that bipolar disorder is a physical illness because it is a neurobiological disorder that affects the physical and chemical structure of the brain. Finally, a doctor who has treated Fitts since 1996, provided a declaration that the illness is linked to changes in blood flow to the brain similar to changes exhibited in Alzheimer's disease and heart disease.

Federal Court Strikes Down Boundary Between Physical And Mental Illness NAMI press release.

Memorandum Opinion and Judgment US District Court for the District of Columbia February 26, 2002 (Adobe Acrobat format, 38K) 

Older Women Have Tough Time With Depression. Many Fail to Respond to Drugs, Psychotherapy. Feb. 14, 2002. By Salynn Boyles of WebMD Medical News. A study evaluating the effectiveness of drugs and psychotherapy for patients with chronic depressive symptoms found that women over the age of 60 were among the least likely to report a treatment benefit. Just 37% of the older women participating in the study reported significant improvement in depression symptoms compared to more than 70% of women who were age 60 or younger. Elderly men responded better to treatments for depression than older women. The reason might be hormonal. 

Seasonal affective disorder research helping many to combat winter depression By Julia Sommerfeld MSNBC February 7, 2002. New research offers insight into why the short, dark days of winter throw millions of people into a blue funk. Scientists are closing in on the cause of seasonal affective disorder, an advance that could lead to new treatment options.

My Turn: My Brother’s Gone; Questions Linger Newsweek,  January 28, 2002 issue. By Marion Siwek. Less than three months after September 11, my youngest brother, Jon, jumped off the terrace of the six-floor building in Manhattan where he had been living with my mother. He had just turned 33. Were the events of that day simply too much for him to handle? 

January 13, 2002. The New York Times. The Therapy Generation. by Leslie Berger. Treatment for depression and other Mental Health disorders is way up on college campuses. Last year, for example, 2,600 students sought help at Columbia University's counseling center. The increasing use of psychotherapy is forcing campus mental health services to reevaluate their mission and expand. The article discusses Columbia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan which all began new research projects and programs aimed at improving their Mental Health services. 

January 8, 2002. Reuters Health. More people are being treated for depression than ever before, suggesting that the stigma associated with depression may be declining. In the US, experts estimate that during any given year, between 5% and 10% of the population experiences major depression. These results are from a study in the January 9th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association called National Trends in the Outpatient Treatment of Depression.

The study compared trends in outpatient treatment for depression in 1987 and 1997. Three times as many Americans sought outpatient treatment for depression in 1997 as in 1987. Thirty-seven percent of people being treated for depression in 1987 took antidepressant drugs, compared with nearly 75% in 1997. Among those seeking treatment, the proportion receiving psychotherapy declined from 71% to 60% during the 10-year period.  More insurers are paying for depression treatment; 55% of these costs were covered by third-party payers in 1997, versus 39% in 1987. The authors suggest that the 1987 introduction of Prozac was a major factor behind these trends. Prozac and later SSRIs have fewer side effects and a less complicated dosing regimen than the previous class of antidepressant drugs, known as tricyclics.

This study was also described by WebMD Medical News and was covered in the Washington Post.

January 2, 2002. ABC News.  By Melinda T. Willis. A new study suggests that patients taking placebos for major depression in research studies may be altering their brain function. A placebo is a non-medication, or inactive treatment that is used to satisfy a patient's psychological need for medicine. The placebo effect is when the act of taking a pill (perhaps a simple sugar pill) is enough to make someone feel better. This is the first study to suggest that patients with major depression who receive placebos experience changes in brain function similar to changes caused by medication. The study used quantitative electroencephalography or QEEG imaging to look at brain activity and was published in the January 1 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

This story was also covered by Reuters. Brain activity changed in the prefrontal cortex, a region associated with the regulation of mood. Patients on medication exhibited a suppression of prefrontal activity within 48 hours. Patients given a placebo, showed an increase in brain activity after two weeks. A doctor is quoted as saying "These findings show us that there are different pathways to improvement for people suffering from depression."

A related article, The Healing Power of Placebos was published in the FDA Consumer magazine January-February 2000.