I think the idea that depression is a normal, evolutionarily important part of life would improve the treatment of it. To me depression is generally someone saying, "wait this is not fair."

If we considered the insights of folks who were/are depressed as valid and important not just symptoms caused by biology and not environment, hopefully this would lead to people who were depressed getting the respect, attention and compassion that is not only deserved but necessary for our species to survive and evolve in a positive way.

If someone is depressed because s/he is in a miserable, unrewarding job which doesn't pay a living wage, treatment by improving working conditions and, instead of all of these bs controls on how much people at the top can make and attempts to force people who have not enough money to start with to buy health insurance, we raised the minimum wage to 30 bucks an hour, I think the depressed worker would eventually improve and be held in respect until s/he did. Psych hospitals wouldn't have locks or be the filthy, demeaning prisons they are currently and the depressed wouldn't be told their beautifully sane reasons for being unhappy were invalid and given drugs that make them violent.

I dunno...just because rats who lost the receptor had less depression, doesn't mean the receptor is FOR depression, per se. It may have many purposes, of which creating something like depression is only one.

I am very, very skeptical of evolutionary psychology not only because it's reductionist but because it's so often used to justify social inequities.

That said,I'm glad Newsweek is entertaining the idea that depression may have some purpose. More psychoanalytically-oriented practitioners could have told us this years ago: depression and anxiety can be seen as signs we need to reassess our situation and adapt differently.

What's that olde book -- "Be Glad You're Neurotic"? It said something to the effect that patients should consider panic attacks their friends, as they signal something is wrong that needs to be attended to.

I agree with Miranda. Sharon Begley's conclusion may be valid but the way she gets to it is highly suspect. In the circles in which I move, Begley is not considered the most sophisticated of neuroscientists and tends to buy into a lot of biopsychiatric bunk that we can better do without.

I'd really hate to think that what I'm going through these days is good for me OR the species. :)

That said, I am always really skeptical of studies looking at "depression" and "anxiety" in animals (and the 1998 study she cited spoke more about "anxiety".) These things are measured entirely differently in humans and nonhumans because we are not able to sit a mouse down and run a SCID, nor are we able to subject humans to the sorts of things we can do to animals. What is usually considered evidence of "depression" in a nonhuman animal looks very different from the disorder as it manifests in humans.

So, while I find these studies interesting, I often wonder if at a basic level they are comparing apples and oranges.

There is a scene from 'My Dinner with Andre' that comes to mind. One of the characters explains that when he is cold sometimes he doesn't get another blanket or turn up the heater. The sensation of being cold allows space for him to feel and wonder about what it is like to be cold. His mind then wanders to who else may be cold and what they must feel like and so on...

I haven't checked, but I am sure there is a pill for the sensation of being cold.

Our society seems to be getting colder ... and more harsh... and more cruel. Our media has become a modern day Colliseum where we cheer on our manufactured "beasts" to tear from limb to limb. Our awareness dimmed and soothed by the latest antidepressant. As our culture becomes more psychotic, our medications become more anti-psychotic.

I agree with the idea that depression can be of value. I don't believe we can escape the pain of life. When we try, it seems we find ourselves projecting our pain out there. Out onto whomever we have collectively decided deserves it.

I think as a culture we need to learn how to hold more of our own pain, allowing the chill to seep in a little bit longer before we turn up the heat.