February 7, 2006
Kamloops Daily News

Despite pills, depression is something we know little about.

Depression has been around for millennia but still remains
misunderstood.

Treatment for depression lags behind other diseases. "It's
like the fifties decade with cancer," says Lloyd Craig, "we
just don't know enough about it yet."

Lloyd Craig is painfully aware of depression. His son,
Gavin Craig, died from it. Lloyd saw his son for the last
time when Gavin visited his family in Vancouver. He left
his parents house to return to university in Washington,
D.C., and was never heard from again.

Gavin committed suicide after suffering the downward spiral
of depression. It's not that uncommon. People who live in
stressful conditions are susceptible. One person a day in
B.C., on average, takes his or her life, many as a result of
depression.

"We were left with an unbearable pain when Gavin died," says
Lloyd Craig. His grief prompted him to start a fund-raising
drive for the treatment of depression. Craig's effort's paid
off with a $4.5 million endowment fund in which the province
of B.C. matched funds.

The fund has hired a recognized researcher to find a
treatment for depression. Dr. Young's work shows a link
between depression, the nervous system and hormones.

It's time for new thinking to solve the problems of
depression, says Dr. Young. "Antipsychotic drugs were
discovered in the fifties, antidepressants were discovered
in the fifties. We have refined these drugs but there's
been no great leap forward."

The causes of depression have been a mystery for thousands
of years, not just decades. At one time it was a sign of
genius. Some of the greatest men in history have been
afflicted by what was then known as melancholy. Aristotle
wrote 2500 years ago "all men who have become outstanding in
philosophy, statesmanship, poetry or the arts are
melancholic."

The mood swings of the bipolar form of depression have been
credited for flashes of brilliance. But what goes up must
come down. Creative highs are typically followed by a
plunge to mind-numbing lows.

And for many sufferers there are no highs, only the
never-ending blues - - difficulty in getting out of bed in
the morning, lack of zest for life, inability to find joy in
ordinary things.

Depression has been profitable for the pharmaceutical
industry. In the fifties, the technology of brain scans
suggested that mood and thought are nothing more than the
action of neurotransmitters.

Always looking for a new pill to cure what ails us, drug
companies came to the rescue with Prozac. The marketing of
antidepressants was given a boost with the best-selling book
written by psychiatrist Peter Kramer, Listening to Prozac.

The book helped promote antidepressants as better living
through chemistry. Kramer claimed he could make sufferers
feel better than well.

Kramer has since changed his mind. He now says that the
brain chemistry is just part of the picture.
Neurotransmitters "play, at best, a supporting role in the
biology of mood," Kramer now claims in his new book.

Antidepressants have not lived up to promise. Less than
one-half of the studies into their effectiveness showed any
improvement at all over a placebo. They seem to reduce mood
swings but they don't cure depression.

Lifestyle plays an important role. Depression is triggered
by depressing events. The death of a loved one or stressful
living can trigger a downward spiral. Gloom generates a
chemical change in the brain that generates more gloom.
Kramer likens it to a "stuck switch."

Society also plays a role. Success is measured in terms of
what money can buy. Competition and the struggle to get
ahead isolate people from the very support systems - -
friends and family - - that could help them when they fall.

Also, unhappiness is an anathema of modern western society.
Commercials depict a world of happiness through consumption.
If someone is depressed in the glut of such wonderful goods,
they just aren't spending enough.

Drug companies are quick to classify every mood as an
illness treatable by pills. If the things you buy don't
make you happy, you can always turn to pills.

The result is a nation of consumers who are convinced that
they can buy happiness - - if not through goods and
services, then though drugs.

Antidepressants can make depressed people feel better but
the resulting life is often a chemical bliss, or a numbed
despondency, or a "bland happiness" as Kramer puts it.


David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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