[gumby]

Sadly this is true. "depression", like so many diseases, is named after its symptoms rather than etiology. So if we even have an effective drug, it will only be effective on a subset of the sufferers.

Plus we understand so little macro neurochemistry we don't even understand which apparently correlated biomarkers are causal and which are consequential. The same problem exists with other neurological diseases such as Alzheimers. With depression, as it seems to affect higher function, we even have difficulty (and treatment affordances) with non-chemical stimuli.

Still, it's very much worth working on -- people are suffering such serious debilitation.

[Elof]

I’ve benefited greatly from various medications combined with non-chemical strategies. When I first considered medication I talked with my Doctor, talked with some friends that are Doctors, and did my own research and every resource came up with the same basic info, we don’t actually know that much... Add onto that finding a combination of things that ‘worked’ was a trial and error process that took over a year, all while I was dealing with my mental health issues.

Sadly so many people in a similar situation don’t have the flexibility, access and/or support to go down the path that I did. Often they will opt out because of the stigma associated with having mental health issues.

The fact that we know so little leaves tons of room for improvement in addressing mental health, but I worry that we have a very long road to giant leaps in addressing mental health unless we can destigmatize mental disabilities (and other neurological conditions)