Doctors argue that depression ‘should not be seen as a disease’ Irish Independent Wednesday November 30th 2005 Eilish O’Regan Health Correspondent - Commentary by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD

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Doctors argue that depression ‘should not be seen as a disease’
Irish Independent Wednesday November 30th 2005
Eilish O’Regan Health Correspondent

DEPRESSION should be viewed as an emotion rather than a disease, according to the authors of a controversial new book. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Here is the only scientific fact of the matter and they are called "controversial." ]

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Michael Corry of Clane General Hospital and Dublin psychotherapist Dr Aine Tubridy question the widespread use of drugs to treat depression, saying it is more “band-aid” than cure.
One in five of the population was prescribed anti-depressants last year at a cost of €100m.
However, while these can give a “short uplift to mood”, they can mask the underlying cause and lead to relapse on withdrawal, the medics insist.
The doctors make the claims in their book, ‘Depression: An Emotion not a Disease’, and call for more emphasis on psychotherapy to provide insights into problems and behavioural changes. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
When will we get around to proclaiming that not a single psychiatric diagnosis/"disorder" is a disorder, disease or chemical imbalance of the brain or body. Why not? Because it would be bad for the "chemical balancer"/pill business]

Commenting on the book, Dr Siobhan Barry, spokesperson for the Irish Psychiatric Association, said the views expressed would not be termed unorthodox.
“What would be unorthodox is if they were saying that antidepressant medication never had a place in the treatment of depression,” she said.
Options
Dr Barry said that different kinds of treatment were needed for various types of depression which vary in severity, and some people on anti-depressants might benefit from having them reviewed, with other options considered by their doctor.
Growing numbers of antidepressants were being prescribed but it was open to question if more people were depressed, she added.
The authors emphasise the need to look at a range of treatments for depression – such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, acupuncture , yoga, massage and psychotherapy.
They appeal to their colleagues to join them in seeking better ways to help vulnerable people suffering from depression.
They said it was impossible to separate depression from its causes – such as sexual abuse, bullying, dysfunctional relationships, poverty, panic, broken hearts and the increasing demands on everyone to “have a life” and make ends meet.
If people saw depression as an emotion it could be viewed as empowering, optimistic and liberating, putting the sufferer back at the helm rather than at the the mercy of disease.
They argue: “If we stand back and look at depression, it has few of the characteristics of a disease. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
most important, persons who are depressed have no physical abnormality = disease]

“If, for example, you lose your job or your lover rejects you and you become depressed, would your depression not immediately lift if your job was reinstated and your lover returned? This would not be the case if you had renal illness, cancer, diabetes or any other disease.
“Many a depression would be lifted instantly by a Lotto win or the departure of an abusive spouse.”
Dr Barry pointed out one of the problems with psychiatrists working in the public system is that they can have a case list of up to 400 patients.
This means the amount of time they can devote to the individual patient is curtailed even though they would benefit from being able to talk more.
“If you threw out the disease label it would probably not make a whit of difference to how depression is treated,” she added. [Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Dr. Barry is wrong on this point and she knows it. The disease label is the linch-pin of psychopharmaceutical marketing]

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DEPRESSION AS A DISEASE—THE LATEST DISEASE PROPAGANDA FROM THE PSYCHIATRIC-PHARMACEUTICAL-GOVERNMENT CARTEL.

Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD 6/28/04

From that great psychiatric journal, Parade magazine, June 20, 2004 (by Dianne and Dr. Robert E. Hales) : “One in 14 men suffers from depression…” “Men need to know depression is not a weakness but a treatable disease.”

Six years ago, Bradshaw (Terry Bradshaw, Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback) learned the reason for the misery that had plagued him for decades: clinical depression. More than 6 million men in the US—one in every 14—suffer from this insidious disorder…” Although twice as many women report being depressed, male depression remains an “under” disease” under-discussed, under recognized, under diagnosed and under treated. “Depression, like heart disease, looks different in men than in women” says Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. If untreated, depression takes a toll on the body as well as the brain. “If you have depression, it appears to increase your risk of getting heart disease,” says Dr. Dennis Charney, head of the NIMH’s research program for depression and anxiety.

“Depression is not a weakness but a highly treatable medical disease,” says Dr. Richard Carmona, the US Surgeon General.

Here we have the leading government physician a party to the lie/propaganda that things psychiatric—depression—is a disease, when none are.

“While genes may make some men more vulnerable, chronic stress plays a major role in male depression, possibly by raising levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, and lowering testosterone.” “Whatever its roots, depression alters brain chemistry in potentially deadly ways. Depressed men are two to four time more likely to take their own lives than depressed women. The relentless agony of depression may make suicide seem the only way out.”

“All the while the depression goes untreated, it is causing ongoing damage that may shrivel important regions of the brain” says Dr. John Greden director of the University of Michigan Depression Center. “The exciting news is that treatment turns the destructive process around and stops depression in its tracks.”

This talk of brain atrophy as a function of the subjective symptom of depression is outright, blatant, fraud. All such findings in biological psychiatry are from treated populations with the drugs/poisons the only physical variable and the only likely cause of the brain atrophy. And then, on top of that we have the inference that treatment—always meaning drugs—stops the brain shriveling.