CONCERNS ABOUT DEPRESSION

Biological depression research can boast of a number of significant achievements over the past 35 years. Yet, in spite of those achievements, the field is in danger of desiccation. Five reasons are discussed herein: I) short-comings of the DSM-based depression classification; 2) the ever increasing number of, generally poorly validated, diagnostic categories; 3) desubjectivation of psychiatric diagnosing; 4) the lack of a dimensional (better: functional) component in diagnosing depression; and 5) horizontalism, ie the absence of attempts to group symptoms ''vertically'' according to their diagnostic weight. The issues are in need of urgent scientific attention, lest biological depression research will stagnate and ultimately whither. We have indicated ways to approach the issues.