[funnym0nk3y]

Depression presents with many symptoms, some of the are mutually exclusive. Take for example psychomotor changes. It could be retarded or agitated. Some people have anxiety, some don't. Some are irritable, some sleep very much and some sleep very little. There have been the classifications of melancholic and atypical depression, but they aren't used very often as many patients have features of both.

Now consider the poor response to available medication (IIRC 30% remit and 60% respond, which leaves roughly 40% with a potential deadly disease without medication). Some symptoms of depression occur in other mental illnesses, like the similarity between bipolar and unipolar depression. Maybe the disease we currently call depression is acutally a cluster of diseases. That's the reason to look for biomarkers that separate those different diseases and the develop treatments specifically for one disease. Similar to the development of brexanolone for postpartum depression.

[MBCook]

Right. What if this were to be conformed and we could find out that A is best treated by Prozac but C responds really badly to it?

Right now we just try lots of drugs, one after another, on each patient until something works or the patient gives up. What if we could confidently predict the drugs that were the most likely to succeed for each group? It may cut treatment times and help people find relief faster.

Even if we don’t find new treatments or gain a better understanding of cause/effect it could still be useful.

[Spod_Gaju]

You are talking like there are medical treatments that work for those of us with mental illness. There are not. They only have medication to treat the symptoms.

I am one of the people with this deadly disease and frankly I want to die right now because I am homeless living with schizoaffective disorder and it its the 15 year anniversary of my nephews suicide and all anyone here does is downvote me because they cannot take the time to listen.

DO you know how many years I have heard of sht like this and then I go to the doctor and I am getting the same medications my mother got when she was sick 60 years ago?

Do me a favor, read my blog, look at what I know and what I have and am living with, then come back here and tell me I should be happy about this study that will do nothing for me and nothing for anyone in the next 20 years. Then tell me how not giving me that money to help me other people living with mental illness who are homeless to find housing is not better.

https://christianbonanno.substack.com/p/for-alex

[tsimionescu]

I don't think defunding studies on mental illness to fund those who suffer with it is the way to get progress on helping. You're entirely right to be unimpressed with this study and to feel some despair that essentially no study that comes out today will materially affect your life.

But nevertheless, if these studies don't happen, there will forever be people who have to suffer like you do.

Instead, there are many other places where money is being wasted on things that not only have 0 chance of helping, but are actively hurting people. The war budget is many times over all of the psychiatric research money ever spent - maybe we should target taking money from there to help people people struggling with mental illness or homelessness or both, before taking that money from research.

[ajb]

So, I agree that an awful lot of what passes for research and treatment is chosen based on the comfort zone of the practitioners, more than what is most likely to be found to help the patient. But I think in this case you are attacking one of the ones that is more likely to be useful.