Most Depressed Adults in the U.S. Remain Untreated
&gt; The most common treatments for depression were antidepressants (87.0%), followed by psychotherapy (23.2%), anxiolytics (13.5%), antipsychotics (7.0%), and mood stabilizers (5.1%).<p>As a former therapist turned software engineer, herein lies the problem. 87% antidepressants? How are we defining &quot;treatment?&quot; Depression is a complex beast, and does it always require &quot;treatment&quot;?<p>I had a kid with my wife (together 10 years) about 15 months ago. Our little guy slept like absolute shit until a month ago, awaking multiple times per night, every.single.night. Nothing changed this; he finally grew out of it. We also moved, remodeled our home, and became a little isolated. I have suffered depression, including a period of hospitalization early on, dabbled with antidepressants, etc since adolescence. Never had psychosis, as I am lucky. I worked as a therapist for many years. I know this stuff. Yet due to psychosocial stressors, I fell into a period of depression for a couple months. The poor sleep mixed with isolation due to moving, and less exercise, probably. Gained 20 lbs. I know better, I know my triggers, I know warning signs, but it happened. Antidepressants would have masked the issues here. The side effects are subtle but serious over time. And they don&#x27;t fix the problem for people with my kind of depression. Yet, my primary care doc would have prescribed antidepressants in a heartbeat. That is a serious problem with the medical system in the US.<p>What is &quot;treatment&quot;? Sleep, exercise and social experiences? Is there a way to measure that reliably and accurately? Probably not; that is why I take articles like this with a big grain of salt.