Fable

▲ Critiques of Depression's Upside:
The Author Responses ▼

Jonah Lehrer, in his own defense:

Obviously, it will always be difficult to precisely estimate the percentage of people suffering from a condition over a long period of time. For one thing, the diagnosis of major depressive disorder is itself in flux. However, I think there are good reasons to believe that the standard estimate of 20 percent is at the low end of the spectrum, especially given current trends. Since 1980, the diagnosis of depression has been rapidly increasing across every segment of the population. To take but one example: between 1992 and 1998 there was a 107 percent increase in depression among the elderly.

I read the NYTime's article in a more general sense, rather than focus on clinical depression. Lehrer did mean to discussion clinical depression directly. No wonder such a pot was stirred.

As you can imagine, this is a difficult subject to write about, in large part because the facts themselves are so contested. As demonstrated in this widely cited survey, patients with major depressive disorder exist on a continuum of severity, from mild to severe, making it ridiculous to suggest that there is, or should be, only one form of treatment. If a treatment works for the individual patient that is the only fact that matters. Everything else is mere theory.