From: Gene McAloon 

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 07:48:25 -0400, Judy Folkenberg
 wrote:

>Gene:
>
>The first large mental health survey (dubbed the ECA survey) was done about
10-15
>years ago by the National Institute of Mental Helath.  I was working at NIMH
when it
>was done.  I don't remember all the details, except two large facts.  Mental
>disorders (broadly defined) were more prevalent than previously throught
(there was
>particular concern about the much higher rates of depression among the baby
boomer
>population--and it was not an artifact of better measurement), and large
numbers of
>sufferers did not seek treatment.

Judy,

I remember that survey well if only because of the controversy it generated
and the ludicrous fallout to this day of some of its conclusions. The most
obvious problem with it was the outfit that conducted it.  Naturally enough
that outfit would tend to see mental health problems everywhere. But are
such problems really all that prevalent?  It depends of course on how
severe the problem must be before it can be considered dysfunctional.

The most ludicrous fallout was the claim that somehow a certain age group
exhibited a higher than expected incidence of depression and that based
apparently on the complaints made about suffering depression by members of
that age group. Of course we know now that most of those people claiming to
suffer depression in fact exhibit no clinical signs of depression
whatsoever. What we have got rather is a baby-boomer generation addicted to
pill popping to solve all of life's temporary problems.

Feeling a little down and out because you are having problems at the office
or at home?  Why, get an anti-depressant prescription from your doctor.
Based on the number of prescriptions for anti-depressants, that must be an
awful lot of baby-boomers suffering depression. Are they really suffering
depression in the clinical sense?  Of course not.

If you know anyone with a manic-depressive disorder, I suspect strongly that you
know they do only because they told you.  It is not just GPs or internists
who often don't recognize a manic-depressive disorder. Correctly diagnosing
such a disorder is difficult even for professional councilors,
psychologists and psychiatrists and even then can usually be done only over
an extended period of observation.

Genuine manic-depressive disorder is indeed relatively rare.  All the more
so when you realize that an untreated sufferer can be utterly
dysfunctional. I seriously doubt if the people you know who claim to suffer
it really do.  Quite normal mood swings are not symptoms of
manic-depression although some in the pill-popping generation seem to think
so and might even be encouraged to think so by drug companies only too
eager to sell them more pills.

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