Amid the very public debate about depression, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Public Health Advisory (PHA) warning against worsening depression and increased risk of suicidal behavior in people taking antidepressants.
After a short-term study of nine antidepressant drugs revealed an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents, the FDA ordered drugmakers to add a “black box” warning to all antidepressants. The “black box” warning is the most serious warning placed on a prescription drug. In the FDA Clinical Trials Review, it notes that the rate of suicidal thoughts or behaviors with these drugs was 4%, double the risk of placebo of 2%.
Federal health officials are also investigating a suggestion from a University of Texas study that Ritalin and other stimulant drugs given to children could increase the risk of cancer in the future.
Depression is now classified as a major global health crisis, affecting more than 120 million people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Symptoms of depression include feeling sad or down, losing interest in usual activities, feeling guilty, worthless, or hopeless, or having insomnia and lack of energy. This means that virtually everyone on this planet suffers from depression at one time or another.
Harvard University psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen says the symptom questionnaire is used to “diagnose”
depression “may seem scientific,” but “when one examines the questions asked and the scales used, they are entirely subjective measures…”
“Screening for depression” in the general community has undoubtedly influenced the 60 million antidepressant prescriptions written in the US, approximately 10% of the US population, including 1.5 million children.
Allen J. Frances, professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, writes: “Psychiatry’s claim that mental illnesses are diseases of the brain…is not true. There are no objective diagnostic tests to confirm or refute the diagnosis of depression…There is no blood or other biological test to determine the presence or absence of mental illness, as there is for most bodily illnesses.If such a test were developed…then the condition would cease of being a mental illness and would be classified as a symptom of a bodily illness”.
While there has been no shortage of biochemical explanations for psychiatric conditions, Glenmullen is emphatic: “…none have been proven. Quite the contrary. In all cases where such an imbalance was thought to have been found, it was later found.” proved it to be false.
According to Elliot S. Valenstein, PhD and author of Blaming the Brain, “theories hold up not only because there is nothing else to replace them, but also because they are useful in promoting drug treatment.”
As with any condition, treating only the symptoms, not the cause, has no real long-term benefits. With current conventional treatments, it appears that there is no safe and effective therapy.
However, it is not true that there is no understanding of the causes of depression. In his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard lays out very clearly the exact anatomy of how the mind works and what causes things like stress, anxiety, and unhappiness.
Dianetics fully explains the source of disorders and uncontrolled emotions, and explains how to get rid of them.
Current medical thought treats physical illness as a function of the body alone, while modern psychiatry treats mental illness as a dysfunction of the brain. In Dianetics, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard demonstrates how the mind affects the body. He shows how 70% of all human illnesses are in fact psychosomatic, and he wrote:
“The problem of psychosomatic disease is completely covered by Dianetics, and through the technique of Dianetics, such disease has been completely eradicated in all cases.”
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, was first published in 1950 and has been a consistent bestseller ever since. The information in this book can help people achieve a happier and healthier life using a program that is both natural and drug free. Dianetics Techniques go directly to the source of the problem and address the cause, thus alleviating the symptoms.
Depression is a very real and tragic thing. Dianetics can help manage it and should be a welcome solution to a condition that is now considered a global problem.
For more information on Dianetics, visit http://www.DianeticsBook.com/depression