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CNN Live Today
'Daily Dose'
Aired June 17, 2003 - 11:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: New research out today sheds light on the often dark topic of depression. How many Americans are likely to suffer from it? And how effective are the treatments? Let's ask those questions now to our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who has details for us now in our "Daily Dose" of health news this morning.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a huge study down out of Harvard University on depression. And what they -- the numbers that they found are really pretty staggering. What they found is that one out of six Americans suffers from major depression. Those are higher numbers than have been found before. They also found that more people are willing to go to the doctor when they suffer from depression, which is a good thing, but that once they get to the doctor, usually they don't get the right treatment.
Let's take a look at the findings. What the study found -- and this is a study of 9,000 patients, a huge study -- four out of five received inadequate treatment, and we'll get to what that means in a minute.
And sometimes it was that they got the wrong dose of anti- depression drugs. Also that often the patients discontinued treatment and that patients used unproven treatments. They sort of went out on their own. The bottom line of this study is we need to do a better job in this country of treating depression, and part of it that patients need to know that depression is an illness, just like anything else.
A lot of people say they don't want to go to the doctor for depression, because they want to handle it on their own. You wouldn't handle a broken arm on your own or high blood pressure.
HARRIS: That's serious stuff you wouldn't want to handle on your own. How is it that so many people are getting this inadequate treatment?
COHEN: There are many different reasons for that. Four out of five people are getting inadequate treatment once they do go to the doctor. One of the reasons is that many people go to their primary care physician. And the primary care physicians usually only sees people for maybe eight minutes a visit. It's tough to really get to the root of depression in only eight minutes, and often they will hand them a prescription, and they don't really talk to them. And many studies have shown that talk therapy plus drugs is much better than just one or the other. So that's one of the reasons. Also, you can't just blame it on the doctors. Many people of people will show up at the doctors for one or two visits, and say, I don't any of this, I am going to do it on my own, try to take that tough-guy kind of stance.
HARRIS: Do they also find that people still have some sort of a stigmatized, you know, in their minds, a stigmatized sense of psychiatry or talking to a doctor about this?
COHEN: Absolutely. It's gotten much better over the years. But absolutely, people still feel that this is something they should handle on their own. And again, it's a disease -- you wouldn't treat your own high blood pressure, why would you want to treat your own depression. There's a difference between major depression and just sort of feeling down from time to time.
So let's take a look at the symptoms of major depression, what you would want to look out for.
Now if you have five of these symptoms occurring daily for two weeks, then you should go talk to someone about your depression. Fatigue or loss of energy, feeling worthless or guilty, appetite change, meaning you're feeling -- losing weight or gaining weight, also feeling difficulty thinking or concentrating, being agitated or slowed down.
In addition, recurrent thoughts of suicide or death, and there are some other ones in there, too. Increased sleeping. Again, unexplained weight gain. Those are also ones you would want to look out for. From time to time is not really the issue. It's every day for two weeks or more.
HARRIS: It seems to me looking at that list, that's the kind of thing that's easier for someone who loves you, who's watching you to pick up on than you picking up on it yourself.
COHEN: That's an excellent point. And oftentimes when people seek treatment, it's because their spouses sent them and said, OK. this is it, it's time to actually get some help.
HARRIS: All right, thanks. Very serious issue there, folks. Do what you can. Don't wait until it's too late. Thanks, Elizabeth. Appreciate that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 17, 2003 - 11:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: New research out today sheds light on the often dark topic of depression. How many Americans are likely to suffer from it? And how effective are the treatments? Let's ask those questions now to our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who has details for us now in our "Daily Dose" of health news this morning.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a huge study down out of Harvard University on depression. And what they -- the numbers that they found are really pretty staggering. What they found is that one out of six Americans suffers from major depression. Those are higher numbers than have been found before. They also found that more people are willing to go to the doctor when they suffer from depression, which is a good thing, but that once they get to the doctor, usually they don't get the right treatment.
Let's take a look at the findings. What the study found -- and this is a study of 9,000 patients, a huge study -- four out of five received inadequate treatment, and we'll get to what that means in a minute.
And sometimes it was that they got the wrong dose of anti- depression drugs. Also that often the patients discontinued treatment and that patients used unproven treatments. They sort of went out on their own. The bottom line of this study is we need to do a better job in this country of treating depression, and part of it that patients need to know that depression is an illness, just like anything else.
A lot of people say they don't want to go to the doctor for depression, because they want to handle it on their own. You wouldn't handle a broken arm on your own or high blood pressure.
HARRIS: That's serious stuff you wouldn't want to handle on your own. How is it that so many people are getting this inadequate treatment?
COHEN: There are many different reasons for that. Four out of five people are getting inadequate treatment once they do go to the doctor. One of the reasons is that many people go to their primary care physician. And the primary care physicians usually only sees people for maybe eight minutes a visit. It's tough to really get to the root of depression in only eight minutes, and often they will hand them a prescription, and they don't really talk to them. And many studies have shown that talk therapy plus drugs is much better than just one or the other. So that's one of the reasons. Also, you can't just blame it on the doctors. Many people of people will show up at the doctors for one or two visits, and say, I don't any of this, I am going to do it on my own, try to take that tough-guy kind of stance.
HARRIS: Do they also find that people still have some sort of a stigmatized, you know, in their minds, a stigmatized sense of psychiatry or talking to a doctor about this?
COHEN: Absolutely. It's gotten much better over the years. But absolutely, people still feel that this is something they should handle on their own. And again, it's a disease -- you wouldn't treat your own high blood pressure, why would you want to treat your own depression. There's a difference between major depression and just sort of feeling down from time to time.
So let's take a look at the symptoms of major depression, what you would want to look out for.
Now if you have five of these symptoms occurring daily for two weeks, then you should go talk to someone about your depression. Fatigue or loss of energy, feeling worthless or guilty, appetite change, meaning you're feeling -- losing weight or gaining weight, also feeling difficulty thinking or concentrating, being agitated or slowed down.
In addition, recurrent thoughts of suicide or death, and there are some other ones in there, too. Increased sleeping. Again, unexplained weight gain. Those are also ones you would want to look out for. From time to time is not really the issue. It's every day for two weeks or more.
HARRIS: It seems to me looking at that list, that's the kind of thing that's easier for someone who loves you, who's watching you to pick up on than you picking up on it yourself.
COHEN: That's an excellent point. And oftentimes when people seek treatment, it's because their spouses sent them and said, OK. this is it, it's time to actually get some help.
HARRIS: All right, thanks. Very serious issue there, folks. Do what you can. Don't wait until it's too late. Thanks, Elizabeth. Appreciate that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
