It is by no means clear that Lincoln had the illness that today carries the name &quot;depression.&quot;  My 2008 book, _The Physical Lincoln_ discusses why, and offers an alternate diagnosis that is holistically far superior to the piecemeal mental and physical diagnoses that others have bestowed on him.<p>In brief, there is abundant evidence that Lincoln, his mother, and three of his sons had a genetic disease called MEN2B that made them all tall, thin, and unusual looking (exception: Willie Lincoln was not so unusual looking).  Features of MEN2B can mimic Marfan syndrome and depression, and this is what happened in Lincoln and his mother: Owing to variant neuromuscular function associated with MEN2B, they were physically constituted to look sad, because their muscles (body and face) had low muscle tone as a result of MEN2B.<p>I don&#x27;t think there is a chance in the world that Lincoln was depressed as President, but Sheik&#x27;s work has persuaded many people.  I tackle all of Shenk&#x27;s points (and others) in the book.  If you&#x27;re interested enough to debate the topic here, please read The Physical Lincoln first, and then write me -- so I don&#x27;t have to repeat myself.  :-)<p>Please see:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.physical-lincoln.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.physical-lincoln.com</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;22504423" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;22504423</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;19841386" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;19841386</a> [peripheral]