Walking the Black Dog

doi:10.1136/bmj.39317.505139.BE

BMJ 2007;335:413 (1 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39317.505139.BE

Letters

Is depression overdiagnosed?

Walking the Black Dog

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Parker is chief executive of the Black Dog Institute, not exactlya non-hyperbolic term for "an educational, research and clinicalfacility offering specialist expertise in mood disorders."¹² Perhaps one of the reasons why people like me who walk theBlack Dog become so endlessly frustrated is that those who apparentlystand for greater understanding of, and help for, folks likeme, seemingly do very little to help the public and media tocomprehend the complexity of the depression predicament.

In addition to working out ways to live with, and recover from,this oft devastating condition, we have constantly to endurethose who have never been there, or who have been poorly treatedwhen they have been (with whatever intervention), eroding ourexperience and neutralising our narratives. A condition thatis, to many of us, the most physical we have ever experiencedis reduced to the level of an extreme form . . . [Full text of this article]

Christopher L Manning, chief executive officer, Primhe

Twickenham TW11 9HG

chris.manning@primhe.org