Posted by ed_uk2010 on May 15, 2010, at 10:12:49
In reply to Re: History of depression - um? » 49er, posted by linkadge on May 15, 2010, at 7:56:33
There is some really old psychiatry textbooks in my local library. I was looking at them a while ago and noticed that in the chapter about depression, it stated that depressive illness was quite rare. I suppose they only diagnosed people with depression if the symptoms were very severe. Nowadays, we are told that a huge proportion of the population is suffering from depression.
There are also cultural differences in diagnosis. In Japan, for example, depression was rarely diagnosed until recently. It had a lot of stigma attached to it and was only diagnosed when severe eg. if hospitalisation was needed. Anxiety disorders, on the other hand, have been widely diagnosed in Japan for many years and treated with benzodiazepines.
poster:ed_uk2010
thread:946874
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100514/msgs/947489.html