The medical profession does not yet have a fundamental explanation for the origin of illnesses. If they do not know why illnesses happen then how can they expect their remedies to work? Moreover their obsession with labelling an illness and giving the prognosis to a patient can on occasions give relief to a patient but it can also, for example in the case of a cancer diagnosis, damn them to hell. This latter example is studied as Neuro-oncology.

Reductionism is the necessary way in which medicine has developed over the last 50-100 years but it now stands in the way of progress. There are new approaches such as psychoneuroimmunology which seeks to understand how our psychology and brain interacts with the immune system. More recently the subject of SYSTEMS BIOLOGY has crept onto the scene - it is a marriage of different medical disciplines - seeking to understand how SYSTEMS - of neurons, of networks of neurons and of the PHYSIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS are involved in regulating the body's function.

As can be seen from any medical textbook this is a hugely under-researched area of medicine. Virtual Scanning, which is based upon systems biology, illustrates the scope of this area of medical research - both diagnostically and therapeutically.

By understanding how the physiological systems work it can be possible to induce health and wellbeing thereby addressing issues such as depression.

Doctors in general treat symptoms only and NOT the cause of many illnesses.

Complementary and alternative therapies are much more holistic and effective, finding and treating the cause and origin of illnesses, including depression.

I AGREE WITH WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT DOCTORS TREATING SYMPTOMS INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GET TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.  UNFORTUNATELY THEIR EXCUSE IS THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE TIME. !!!!!!!!!! PEOPLE WHO CARE FIND TIME FOR OTHERS.  DON'T YOU AGREE?

I SUFFER FROM SEVERE MOOD SWINGS AND HAVE A BUSY LIFE AND FAMILY TO TAKE CARE OF.  THE KNOCKS THAT LIFE THROWS OUT AT PEOPLE CAN MAKE THEM FEEL VERY FRAGILE.  I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN HOW YOU COULD ADVISE SOMEONE TO TO BUILD UP STRENGTH OF CHARACTER ONCE IT HAS BEEN LEFT IN TATTERS.

This is definitely the age of selective evidence, symptom masking, pharmaceutical based, dependence generating, dualist, reductionist, tunnel vision, blank cheque, junk medicine.

Depression is just one of the three major dysfunctions - metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological - that a lot of doctors don't have much of an idea about diagnosing or prescribing for.

The Lifestyle Prescription is usually the one furtherest from their mind when someone comes seeking their advice. They don't learn about it in medical school. They don't know the dosage and to monitor it they'd have to roll their sleeves up and get out of surgery.

That's why they reach for the pad. It's easier to dull the senses, pour oil over stormy waters and paper over the cracks than to search for and remove the cause of the dysfunction.

If you go to a doctor these days and have a cry there's a reasonable chance you can walk away with a prescription for an anti-depressant.

One woman I know said she went to the doctor for a regular checkup and had a cry. The doctor tried to seduce her with an antidepressant. She told him, 'I'm not drpressed, just very upset that my husband has left me.' Anyone a little less resilient would have taken the tablet.

The mind is just another body system and in the junk food, sedentary age all systems are at risk, including the mind. In the first instance it's just one of many symptoms that alert you to the fact that maybe you're not in good physical condition.

Regretably the epidemic of depression will continue to escalate at the same rate as the epidemic of all other personally-generated body system dysfunctions.

Reductionists and dualists will continue to believe that the cause of mind dysfunction is solely located at the site where the problem is manifest. Of course it isn't. There's a good chance it's part of a systemic health failure.

The good news is that for a lot of people body system dysfunction can be turned around, poor health can be restore to good health and the body's own recuperative power stimulated by the Lifestyle Prescription. It's the first prescription to take.

Then if all else fails, seek medical advice.

But because you're unlikely to get the Lifestyle Prescription from a doctor why go there first?

As Andrew Weil says, 'Don't go to doctors for things doctors can't fix.'

Excellent comment John!

...A huge difference could be made to the general health of most people by good eating habits and lifestyle choices to include sufficient exercise.

Unfortunately, I see that even the most recent dietry sdvice from NICE, diabetes UK ...and the probable source....the Food Standards Authority, is still a major part of the problem.

I am at a loss as to why these 'experts' seem to ignore, or have limited knowledge of, the metabolic processes involved with sugar and other carbohydrates....the problem of insulin resistance and the erroneous insistance of saturated fat being the major culprit in obesity and cardiac disease.

Sometimes the awful problems and illnesses that life throws at you, especially over a protracted period, can cause depression. If anti depressants don't really help, what can you do when you worry that after every pleasant event, something ghastly follows. This might sound fanciful, but when this has been your experience for 6 years, you wonder what to do to break the cycle. Any ideas? I've tried cognative therapy and am normally rational and cheerful.

Exercise and fresh natural food diet, is the best 'medicine' for depression....plus emotional support of good friends, the tlc effect of some complementary therapies such as Aromatherapy massage or Relexology, are also very valuable.

Good luck.

Probably worth while pointing out the offical medical opinion on depression and its treatment, just before we get too carried away.

Offical NICE Guidance to GPs (2004)

"Antidepressant are no recommended for the initial treatment of mild depression."

CG23 Depression: Management of Depression in Primary Care- Nice Guidance London: NHS p5

The guidance goes on to suggest

"Physical activity is effective in the treatment of clinical depression and can be as successful as psychotherapy or medication, particulalry in the long term"

The Royal College of Psychiatrists guidance advises that antidepressant drugs only be used in moderate to severe depressive illness (Not mild).

That's conventional medical opinion.