Easing Depression Without Drugs

Depression affects approximately 18.8 million adults in the U.S. and is the nation’s leading cause of disability. Yet mental health experts say the front-line treatment for serious cases, antidepressant drugs, works only about half the time and can have troubling side effects, such as weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and even suicidal behavior. As a result, there has been renewed interest in finding nonpharmacological approaches to treating depression other than psychotherapy, which psychiatrists say is often ineffective by itself.

It is both amazing and very telling that in a mainstream article in a mainstream magazine in the U.S. about non-drug teatments for depression, not a single word is mentioned about the most common non-drug treatment, psychotherapy. To the hundreds of thousands of professionals who treat people who are depressed with psychotherapy and the millions of people who receive psychotherapy treatment for depression, this sort of article is just a slap in the face.

Folks should email and write BusinessWeek and this article’s author, Kate Murphy, and let them know that you know what? Treatment of depression involves a lot more professions than simply psychiatry.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 28 Apr 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.