“As we look back over the past decade, one thing is disturbingly apparent: We are increasingly a people in despair. For many, when despair becomes depression, or untenable anxiety, the standard answers — antidepressants with a dose of therapy — are not enough to assuage suffering.
We know this because the rates of mental health disorders and suicide are rising. Nearly a third of the 264 million people who suffer from major depression around the world don’t respond to any antidepressant treatments, and many who do find that medications stop working over time. A surprising number of young people who attempt suicide are already taking antidepressants. Dr. Gregory Plemmons of Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt put it recently, pediatric beds in hospitals used to be for kids fighting off pneumonia; now they’re full of kids who don’t want to live.”
View the whole story here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01/21/opinion/lab-clinic-hope-those-suffering-depression/