Defeating Depression
Depression is a debilitating condition that prevents approximately 12 million women a year from enjoying life or achieving their goals. Depression research is particularly ghastly because it typically involves the deliberate physical and psychological torture of animals, which aims to induce “depressed” behaviors. The classic method is called “learned helplessness,” in which animals receive shocks until they give up trying to escape and accept the pain. Although learned helplessness is considered ethically unacceptable in the United Kingdom, it has been widely used for several decades in the United States and is representative of the methods employed today by animal researchers.
Tortured Mice Are Not Depressed Humans
The basic assumption behind all animal “models” of depression is that stress is the primary cause of the illness. Although stress plays a part, this position is crude and naïve, and it fails to show an adequate appreciation for the complex and varied social factors that often underlie depression in humans. Moreover, because all animals in laboratories experience stress levels related to the conditions in which they are housed, handled, and experimented upon, animal studies of depression are notoriously unreliable across labs.
Animal Studies Get It Wrong
Animal research is often presented as crucial to drug development, but the most widely used class of anti-depressant drugs—which includes Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft—proved ineffective in animal testing. Additionally, countless drugs, such as lithium, had positive effects on animals but were ineffective in human depression studies. These “false negatives” and “false positives” waste time and money and hinder medical progress.
Promising Breakthroughs
In contrast to animal tests, clinical studies and epidemiology are uncovering new and better ways to treat depression daily. A German clinical trial has proven that an extract from St. John’s wort is more effective at treating depression than the popular medication Paxil. Exercise has been shown to cut symptoms of depression in half. Clinical studies have even validated full-spectrum light therapy as a safe and effective means of treating some forms of depression. These breakthroughs increase treatment options and decrease the costs and side effects associated with using anti-depressants.
