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Comment by jwdunne | Hacker News Reader

What I'm saying is a clear cut test would be great but it's not actually hard twit out it and a bigger problem is the treatment.

I think the answer to both lies in the same area though, since the source of depression is not clear in the brain (I believe there was a study that shown SSRIs have an immediate effect on serotonin re-uptake yet takes a number of weeks to ease depression - implying serotonin doesn't play such a direct role as once believed).

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We have to study it from multiple angles. I don't have a problem with more research into SSRIs. Hell I don't even have a problem with SSRIs.

The main issue I have is that people think our understanding of mental illness / psychiatry is as good as say pathology.

Oh I do not deny that at all. If it was, we both wouldn't be airing our distaste for diagnosis and treatment. The whole field is still very, very young so we can't expect the same advances as we have in other areas.

My main point is that, from my own person experiences through the whole system, treatment seems the most broken aspect. Diagnosis of depression is possible without a blood-test, as are other physical illnesses, the signs are obvious. The treatment is not as trivial, you won't do well to "let it run it's course", the drugs are gruelling and may not even work and therapy requires drive a depressed person hasn't got.

Another aspect of depression is dependent on BDNF levels (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21749907

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