The Canberra Times, Friday, March 19, 2004 Medication backed to treat blues By Danielle Cronin, Health Reporter Canberra academics have defended the use of drugs to treat depression after a visiting psychologist challenged the popular practice. Dr. Dorothy Rowe, who has penned books on depression and was named one of the 50 wisest people in Britain, said describing anti-depressants and treating depression as physical illness was ineffective. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
But the Australian National University's Centre for Mental Health Research acting director Professor Helen Christensen said there was evidence to back the use of medication. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
"Research across a range of international studies clearly indicates that anti-depressant medication is effective," Professor Christensen said. "...I think that people faced with the despair of depression show considerable strength in coping with the problem. Certainly the idea that people with depression had fundamentally weak characters is totally unsupported by the evidence." [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
The ANU centre's depression and anxiety consumer research unit director, Dr. Kathy Griffiths, said she was concerned by Dr. Rowe's claims. "I tried a range of psychological and non-drug therapies before turning to anti-depressant medication for my own depression," she said. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
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Depression not physical illness, says UK expert
By Danielle Cronin
Health reporter March 17, 2004 The Canberra Times, Thursday, March 18, 2004
Prescribing anti-depressants and treating depression as physical
illness was
ineffective, according to a visiting psychologist.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Dr. Dorothy Rowe said the British health community had widely accepted that
depression and suicide were sparked by the way people saw themselves and the
world.
But this was not the case in Australia, according to Dr. Rowe, who delivered
a lecture in Canberra on "Questioning psychiatry: is it science or myth?"
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
People interested in the mental health sector packed the ACT Legislative
Assembly's reception room for the talk hosted by Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker.
Dr. Rowe, an Australian psychologist, who had lived in Britain since 1968,
said Australia was a wonderful place.
"But it has some of the highest rates of depression and suicide,
particularly among men, in the world," she said.
"Psychiatrists claim that depression and suicide are the result of a
chemical imbalance in the brain, but the evidence for this is very
doubtful.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
"Moreover, treatment of depressed and suicidal people with
anti-depressant
drugs is not effective."
Dr. Rowe said the mental health field was loaded with the "language of
illness" and labels - a student worried about exams is suffering from
academic disorder or a child grieving for their dead parent has bereavement
disorder.
The labels were a matter of opinion and could prove unhelpful, Dr. Rowe
said.
People who were depressed or suicidal needed to talk about their situation
with someone who was not involved in their life.
The key was to build up self-confidence and self-esteem rather than simply
prescribe medication.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
"What the evidence does show is that talking about depression and suicide as
if they are physical illnesses prevents us from understanding why people
become depressed and suicidal," she said.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
"If we understand that depression and suicide arise out of the way we each
see ourselves and the world, we can make the changes necessary in the way we
think and act so that we can lead happy, fulfilling lives."
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
The good mental health services provided a wide range of therapies, while
the bad services were based on injecting medication and locking people up.
Dr. Rowe's book, 'Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison', is published by
Brunner-Routledge and distributed by Palgrave Macmillan in Australia.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
This article was published alongside an item on "A new information pack for
people admitted to ACT psychiatric facilities and their carers". There's a
media release about that here:
http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/mediareleases/fileread.cfm?file=040317a.txt
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