A Network of Depression Treatment Centers

Two years ago, the New York Times published an important op-ed by Andrew Solomon, author of the award-winning history of depression The Noonday Demon. In "Our Great Depression," Solomon reflected on the state of depression treatment in America:

Despite medical advances in the last 20 years that have greatly improved our ability to help those who suffer from depression, we lack an effective system for administering care. Only a very small percentage of depressives who seek help receive appropriate treatment for their condition. Research often stalls short of being translated into useful medicine. Depressives continue to be stigmatized, which makes their lives even more difficult and lonely. Finally, many sufferers are left to spiral, unsupported, into despair because their insurance companies refuse to pay for treatment.

Solomon proposed a network of depression centers which would be similar to University of Michigan's Center for Depression where research and practice come together with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment.

The network, Solomon wrote, could be modeled after the network of cancer centers created in the 1970s through the National Cancer Institute. Solomon remarked on the success of the network of cancer centers:

As this network of institutions took root, the quality of cancer treatment advanced dramatically. The centers brought researchers and clinicians under one roof, ensuring that basic science was applied to achieve medical results. Scientists communicated both within and between centers, so that everyone could make use of everyone else’s work to accelerate progress.

A national network of depression treatment centers, Solomon believed, would improve the understanding and the treatment of depression. They would also help to to medicalize depression in the public imagination would reduce sufferers’ shame. Moreover, it would make it harder for insurance companies to deny treatment as "the false distinctions between [mental illness] and cancer or heart disease will become impossible to sustain."

In an age of economic uncertainty in which there never seems to be enough money for public health, what are the chances of Solomon's vision becoming a reality?

Excellent, as it turns out.

In August, a new Depression Center at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine launched at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO. New centers are now being planned at more than a dozen universities across the country and will soon officially form a National Network of Depression Centers.

The NNDC will make it easier for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals to share information and best practices, and to team up for major projects. Thanks to a generous donation from retired investment banker George Wiegers, the University of Michigan Depression Center was able to create a "Center Assistance Program" that will help other NNDC members launch their own Depression Centers.

George Weigers also gave $3 million to allow the Colorado center to be built in renovated offices in the old Fitzsimons Army Hospital. (Coincidentally where my twin sons were born.) Weiger's mother suffered from biopolar disorder. "I saw the ravages of depression," he told reporters. "We need national insurance coverage for mental health just like we have for physical disorders."

This is wonderful news. Sometimes visions do become reality. As noted in the press release announcing the opening of the U of C Depression Center, "Cancer was once only whispered about, rarely cured, and carried a stigma that was similar to what depression and bipolar disorder still carry. But now that depression, bipolar disorder and other conditions have been shown to be just as “real” as cancer — rooted in biological factors such as genetics and brain chemistry — the new network will continue the growing momentum to make that stigma a thing of the past.

Cheers and thanks to all who are helping to strengthen the network. Your work is greatly appreciated!