Depression, like dyslexia and “Yuppie flu”, is one of those fashionable diseases that have no symptoms except what the sufferer feels.

Now Professor Jerome Wakefield of New York University has said that sadness and depression are essential tools of evolution that prompt “sufferers” to become high achievers in life. He cites Winston Churchill, Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln and Isaac Newton as depressives who made good.

Wakefield says: “When you find something this deeply in us biologically, you presume it was selected because it had some advantage, otherwise we wouldn’t have been burdened with it. We’re fooling around with part of our biological makeup.”

He further believes that medical diagnoses of depression and its treatment with powerful drugs, like Prozac, is an unnecessary and dangerous fad. His book, The Loss of Sadness: How psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder states that sadness helps us learn from our mistakes. “I think one of the functions of intense negative emotions is to stop our normal functioning — to make us focus on something else for a while.”

So, if you are feeling down, consider that a deep part of yourself may be attempting to convey something to you.

At least try to find out what it is before heading for the medic’s surgery.

Chemical changes in the brain that inhibit its ability to repair itself coupled with functional changes and restricted social interaction and activity may result in post-stroke depression. One third of patients will suffer depression following a stroke.

A study that followed 188 ischemic stroke survivors found that a straighforward care managment program worked better than relying solely on antidepressant medication.

The program, called AIM, consists of three steps:

Activating stroke survivors and their families to understand and accept depression diagnosis and treatment;
Initiating antidepressant medication and
Monitoring treatment effectiveness.

The study also concluded that screening for depression should be done within 30-60 days following a stroke instead of immediately afterwards because emotional changes which occur soon after stroke may not develop into depression.

Post-stroke depression is associated with higher death rates, dimimished recovery and increased risk of subsequent stroke.

Lead Author of the study was Linda Williams, M.D., associate professor of neurology and a Regenstrief Institute research scientist. In addition to Dr. Williams, co-authors of the study are Kurt Kroenke, M.D.; Wanzhu Tu, Ph.D.; and Hugh Hendrie, MB, ChB all of the IU School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute; Laurie Plue, M.S., of the Roudebush VA Medical Center; Tamilyn Bakas, D.N.S., of the IU School of Nursing; and Ed Brizendine, M.D. of the IU School of Medicine.