Episode Details

There’s no blood test for depression, no MRI or CT scan that can detect it. Because depression, like a lot of things involved with mental health, is invisible. 

Still, depression is the most common mental health issue in the US and worldwide. Nearly 30% of Americans will be diagnosed with depression in their lifetimes.

Many people wind up taking an antidepressant. You’ve probably heard of these drugs by their brand names: Prozac Lexapro, Paxil and - the drug in this episode - Zoloft.

These drugs do help, but finding the right drug that works for the right person can take a lot of time, and a lot of trial and error. This can be a messy and frustrating process.

In this episode of Drug Story, we jump into that mess. We explore the mystery of how these drugs actually work - and why depression seems so much more common today than in the past.

Sources for this episode:

[1] History of depression through the ages (2020) Archives of Depression and Anxiety: From Hippocrates’ humoral theory to Freud, key historical figures shaped the understanding and treatment of depression.

[2] History of Depression (2015) The Oxford Handbook of Mood Disorders: Symptom-focused diagnosis and treatment have contributed to the medicalization of normal human sadness.

[3] Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (2023) StatPearls: Developed in the 1930s and published in 1942, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most common psychometric test for assessing personality traits and psychopathology including depression.

[4] The development of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (1994) Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences: Two scientists at the University of Minnesota, Starke Hathaway and J. C. McKinley, developed the MMPI in the 1930s, a widely adopted survey measuring mental illness.

[5] Depression as a disease of modernity: Explanations for increasing prevalence (2012) Journal of Affective Disorders: Modern lifestyle factors like poor diet, inactivity, and social isolation may contribute to rising depression rates.

[6] The creation of the concept of an antidepressant: An historical analysis (2008) Social Science & Medicine: The term antidepressant gained traction in the 1950s-1960s, framing drugs as disease-specific treatments for depression.

[7] A RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION (1960) Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry: Max Hamilton published the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) questionnaire to measure severity of depression symptoms.

[8] The PHQ-9 (2001) Journal of General Internal Medicine: The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a nine-item depression symptom questionnaire used to screen adults for depression. Kurt Kroenke developed the PHQ in the mid-1990s with funding from Pfizer. 

[9] The Origin Story of the Zoloft Sad Blob, a Clinically Depressed Icon (2021) Mel Magazine: Early 2000s ads used a blob character to represent depression, which drew both praise and criticism.

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