Depression

[SueEllen]

Look at how they treated mental illness a hundred years ago, look at how they treated it 50 years ago!

Thankfully medicine (the science, not just the drugs) have advanced leaps and bounds in that time

Oddly enough some people felt safer in asylums then they do now in care in the community.

[Old Greg]

Oddly enough some people felt safer in asylums then they do now in care in the community.

There is probably more controversy around moving people with learning disabilities into the community than there is around people with mental health problems.

[original PM]

The point is the more safety nets you make the more people will use them whether they need then or not.

I appreciate there are some people who truly are depressed and need support and care.

There are also people who feel life is a bit rubbish and it's cold and dark outside so they feel 'depressed' but they do not have clinical depression.

[SueEllen]

The point is the more safety nets you make the more people will use them whether they need then or not.

The stigma over mental illnesses is still around so no-one would happily go into an asylum. Plus no GP would suggest it for anything but the worst cases and they have to deal with mentally ill patients day in and day out. They don't openly talk about it but this is one of the reasons no-one wants to be a GP.

Also if you know or have known people with severe mental illnesses and their families who are left to try and care for them, having places where they can go and be safe if they are are threat to themselves and rarely others is a blessing.

There was a review into 10 deaths in Sussex which was recently published and if you look at the summary findings you can see clearly one of the issues is lack of money.

[dundeedude]

Depression has existed since the dawn of life and is observed in all different types of animals as behavioural patterns.

Mental illness is a complex area - however there are quite amazing advances in research, finally, which suggest bodily inflammation could be the cause of between a quarter to a half of depression cases seen in the western world.

Much like Crohn's disease is the autoimmune system seemingly mistakenly targeting the terminal ileum (in most cases) then it is theoretically plausible and, now, provable that the body's autoimmune system targets certain other specific materials within the body. This could be collagen, tissue or evidently: specific DNA that also is contained within parts of the brain.

This chimes with friends of mine who have other health issues in which depression is a secondary symptom, whereas in the past elevated inflammation levels, such as C Reactive Protein (CRP), was considered to be a symptom of depression. Rather than being caused neurologically it is instead clear that some autoimmune fault is targeting particular areas of the brain and therefore people genuinely appear depressed due to the fact they are severely unwell but current medical provisions don't cater for this and mistreat them with SSRIs in an attempt to resolve a symptom rather than resolve the cause of the problem.

Prior to being diagnosed celiac my ex-partner really did appear very unwell and depressed for two years before further tests were attempted. Hopefully we're moving from an age of trial and error to systematic analysis of the symptoms presented to a GP in order to ensure people who are very unwell stop attempting and succeeding in suicide.

The programme is very interesting and well worth listening to:
BBC Radio 4 - The Inflamed Mind

Edited to add:
In my opinion a major breakthrough would also be to ensure that when a patient visits a GP the GP is able to perform a test that could quickly indicate the various raised inflammatory markers and therefore provide alternative treatment for the depression. Too many people are visiting GPs with health anxiety and receiving anti-depressants. My understanding at this time if the reason less analysis is performed for depression is purely because the cost of providing an individual with a full body health check is prohibitively expensive when you extrapolate the cost to the entire country.

[quackhandle]

People who have not come across it can be quite ignorant of it.

Nice to see the idiot poster mocking it in the Robin Williams thread banned for a while however this post was also liked by a so called "mod."

Says it all really.

qh

[NotAllThere]

People who have not come across it can be quite ignorant of it.

Nice to see the idiot poster mocking it in the Robin Williams thread banned for a while however this post was also liked by a so called "mod."

Says it all really.

qh

You might think that, but you are not in possession of all the facts.

[mudskipper]

People who have not come across it can be quite ignorant of it.

Nice to see the idiot poster mocking it in the Robin Williams thread banned for a while however this post was also liked by a so called "mod."

Says it all really.

qh

Down to interpretation of the post. I took it the opposite way - i.e. he was saying that you can't treat depression with a bit of fluffy feelgood stuff.

[scooterscot]

Listening to a podcast on irrational behaviour a wee while ago. People who are depressed were often shown to have a very realistic world view, given the state of the world it explains a lot.

[MrMarkyMark]

Listening to a podcast on irrational behaviour a wee while ago. People who are depressed were often shown to have a very realistic world view, given the state of the world it explains a lot.

Hence why we can be assured you are not depressed, then