Newsletter
Moody Blues2025-05-05
“You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle.”
—Julian Seifter
One in ten adults (25M people) in the US suffer from depression or bipolar disorder. That is a conservative estimate. Half of them do not function optimally despite various treatments- not responding to the treatments, or the treatments are over-shooting, or creating side-effects.
Mood disorders are on a spectrum, with depression and bipolar disorder benefiting from different choices of medications.
Better diagnosis and better matching with treatments would be transformative for the individuals affected, their families, and society at large. We have made significant progress in that direction, and are strong advocates for clinicians to embrace a more measurement-based, personalized and comprehensive bio-socio-psychological approach. Tools and resources we have developed can be found at mindxsciences.com. Let’s make May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month, a month of true improvement, not just lip service to the cause! Diagnoses are not forever, they change as the right treatments work. People go in remission, do not have elevated biomarkers for risk anymore, and move on with their lives, just like they do for diabetes and other disorders.