Contributing Factors

One of the biggest challenges in treating mental illnesses like depression is that so much of it is still trial and error. We know certain medicines work for certain people, but we don't necessarily know which meds will work for which people. Or what the dosage should be — because unlike other diseases, the dosage you might need for an antidepressant is not necessarily correlated with how severe your depression is. It's more difficult to define and measure psychiatric disorders than it is for diseases like diabetes and cancer. Even though what we call "mental illness" has a clear biological basis, the scientific community still doesn't fully understand all that much about the functioning of the incredible organ we call "brain." In this episode, we hear from clinicians and researchers about what we do know, what we don't, and what the medical and scientific communities are trying to figure out about depression. We also hear from Lucero Sifuentes about her story trying to find the right antidepressant, as well