Showing results by author "Jonathan Rottenberg" in All Categories

Nearly every depressed person is assured by doctors, well-meaning friends and family, the media, and ubiquitous advertisements that the underlying problem is a chemical imbalance. Such a simple defect should be fixable, yet despite all of the resources that have been devoted to finding a pharmacological solution, depression remains stubbornly widespread. Why are we losing this fight?

Depression affects more than 15 percent of the population, and it is striking people at younger and younger ages. Depression is all too familiar, yet it remains shrouded in mystery, confusion, and fear. What is depression? How is it different from sadness? It is said that depression is a "chemical imbalance", but what does that mean? Which chemicals are involved, and how are they imbalanced? Why is it that just as more research and treatment resources are poured into combating depression, its personal and economic toll has grown? What is fueling the epidemic of depression?