An article that a professor wrote in Stony Brook University argues that depression should be re-conceptualized as an infectious disease. MDD has been around for a very long time and it can affect up to 20 percent of the population. Re-occurrence is common and not a lot is known of this disease so drugs haven't changed over the years. The professor has found that MDD has a lot of characteristics that an infectious disease has as well. These include loss of energy and inflammatory bio-markers. He believes that if it is re-conceptualized as an infectious disease then more extensive research can be done to find new ways to treat depression.
Read more here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141114124307.htm
I agree that more research should be put into depression because I've seen what it can do to people. However, can you please define what an infectious disease and the characteristics that most infectious diseases have so that I can relate depression to an infectious disease?
ReplyDeleteHow would the drugs change if it were labeled an infectious disease?
ReplyDeleteI find it both interesting and ridiculous that just because a common issue has a different label, people are automatically willing to spend more time and money looking for a treatment. It's obviously a problem, so I didn't think that its label had any effect on research until now.
ReplyDeleteIf it is and infectious disease, how might someone "catch" it? Is it fast spreading, or slow spreading?
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to believe that depression is an infectious disease. Ebola would be considered something that is infectious, depression would not. If I touched a person with depression I wouldn't become depressed from that. Depression is simply a mood disorder.
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