I am close to somebody who has been strongly affected by depression.  She has, in any material respect, a perfect life.  She has food, clothes, a supportive family, a great job, plenty of money, etc.  There is nothing &quot;wrong&quot; with her life.<p>But she suffers off-and-on depression.  Not just &quot;I feel bad&quot; depression.  Crippling, &quot;can&#x27;t get out of bed&quot; depression.  Periodic suicidal ideation.  Occasional suicide attempts.<p>She knows she has depression.  She talks about it.  And she wants to be done with it.  She knows how she feels when her brain is &quot;in balance&quot; and how it feels when she&#x27;s depressed.  One of these states is much more preferable to the other.<p>She&#x27;s tried drugs, ECT, talk therapy, etc.  And, yes, she&#x27;s tried ketamine.  Anything that will put her back to a state where she is able to get out of bed and function, and reduce the odds of her killing herself when she&#x27;s depressed.<p>I&#x27;m sure there are a lot of people who are depressed due to outside factors -- poverty, oppression, war, etc.  But I can tell you quite certainly that there are people who have &quot;perfect&quot; lives who find themselves clinically depressed.  And at least some of those people want to get back to a non-depressed state.  This research helps them.<p>TL;DR: Not all people are depressed because their life sucks, nor is depression something that all people can &quot;cure&quot; by thinking harder or trying harder.  Some people have a brain imbalance and would like to fix it so they can have a life.  Literally.