The Truth About Depression
Depression is a debilitating condition that prevents more than 12 million women in the United States each year from enjoying life or fully functioning in society.1 It is one of many psychological disorders in which gender plays a key role—women are twice as likely to suffer from a depressive illness and up to three times as likely to experience unusual variants of the disorder than are men.2
Animal research conducted in the study of depression is particularly ghastly because it typically involves the deliberate physical and psychological torture of animals in an effort to induce depressed behaviors in the “subjects.” Despite the intense suffering that these tests have caused, they have been worse than useless—they have wasted resources and misled researchers. By looking at the failings of depression research on animals, we can see the problems that are inherent in the use of animals to research human psychological disorders.
The Problem With Using Animals to Study Depression >>
1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, Women Hold Up Half the Sky: Women and Mental Health Research (Bethesda: National Institutes of Health, 2001).
2. Hymie Anisman and Kim Matheson, “Stress, Depression, and Anhedonia: Caveats Concerning Animal Models,” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 29 (2005): 525-546.
