What is depression?

July 9th, 2008

There’s a somewhat provocative article in a Boston paper. It’s focus is that though SSRI drugs like Prozac have very successfully treated depression, the way we thought they worked is completely wrong and is hiding a more fundamental understanding of the deep problem – depression, they claim, is a result of your brain cells shrinking and dying. Prozac and the other SSRIs don’t correct an imbalance – under this scenario they help heal physical problems with the brain.
It’s a somewhat scary prospect. It would mean millions of people have brains that are seriously damaged. On the face of it I can’t dismiss this kind of finding out of hand. It could all be completely wrong, but I can’t say that just yet.
I do have some questions though – manic depression seems to push against this theory – people here swing from depressed to high functioning – is this yet another symptom of brain damage or does it suggest that this is a different disease from classic depression?

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