Putting clinical depression under the microscope and on the blogosphere

Antidepressants are useless. Or they save lives. Or their side effects are exploited by media-savvy physicians to get free publicity. Or maybe -- just maybe -- they seem to have boggled the top minds in medicine and public policy and we seem have no bloody idea what to think about them anymore.

That's where University of Calgary psychiatrist Scott Patten and Heather Juby, a demographer from the government-run Research Data Centre Network, come in. They're collaborating on a new project, the first in a series of Research Data Centre Synthesis reports, to profile the current understanding of the epidemiology of clinical depression in Canada. (Download their full February 2008 report here, as a PDF.)

The really interesting thing about their project -- besides their excellent research -- is the way they're trying to engage a broad spectrum of Canadians to discuss the report with them, in an interactive blog format.

The report's urges more Canadian investment in depression treatment. "The general message for policy makers is clear: investment in the prevention and treatment of major depression will be of enormous benefit to Canadians and the Canadian economy," it says. "The problem is substantial, and so must the investment be." Drs Patten and Juby also call for more specific research on some of the questions they feel haven't been answered to their satisfaction yet:

Focusing on “resilience” rather than “morbidity” would be a fruitful line for research into depression, as it has proved to be in other research areas, such as child outcomes. Identifying the characteristics and support networks of individuals who emerge relatively unscathed from stressful work, family or health situations could provide some useful insights into prevention of depression.

Equally valuable would be finding the answer to two of the questions raised by these studies: “Why do only half the people meeting the diagnostic criteria for depression seek professional help?” and “what factors contribute to the recovery of those who meet the diagnostic criteria for depression but who did not seek professional help?”

Those are some of the questions that the new blog Dr Patten has set up -- Clinical Depression in Canada -- is intended to generate discussion on. In other words, as Dr Juby puts it in an introduction to the blog: "to encourage an exchange of information, ideas and questions between researchers, policy makers and others - about the synthesis, and about depression research more generally."

So far, Dr Patten has blogged about the reason some studies have shown spontaneous recovery among patients diagnosed with major depression and why that phenomenon has led some people to believe (erroneously) that antidepressants aren't effective, and the current debate in Canada about the link between SSRIs and suicide.

The blog hasn't sparked any discussion as of yet, but the idea itself puts Dr Patten on the cutting edge of health research communications. It's becoming increasingly apparent that one of the great, untapped powers of the internet in health research is to facilitate discussion amongst researchers from different disciplines. Dr Patten's blog, if physicians and researchers take him up on his offer to talk about depression, has a chance to become one of the first in Canada to truly achieve that goal.


Photo: Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research newsletter, Fall 2003

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