Top Depression Researcher Touts Meditation, CBT

I almost couldn't believe my eyes: Charles Nemeroff, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, had this to say the other day in connection with a visit by the Dalai Lama to campus to talk about meditation and depression (article here):

"'With other diseases, we can measure things and predict what treatment we should us,' said Dr. Charles Nemeroff, head of the Emory School of Medicine's department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. 'But in the disease state of depression, it could be mindfulness, cognitive behavior therapy or medicine.'"

That's some pretty interesting talk from a leading psychiatrist, especially one who has been rung up for having his name attached to ghost-authored studies, studies with cooked stats and so on (CL Psych busts him here). In other words, Nemeroff is one of the big boys in the meds-for-all, pharma-does-no-wrong club. Interestingly, Nemeroff backed off from the serotonin hypothesis of depression earlier this year.

His statement is correct of course. I know people who swear that meditation saved them. As with vitamins, if it works for you, go for it because there's obviously something to it. As there is with CBT.