New insight into how omega-3 fatty acids or fish oil supps may reduce depression

[Syne]

You're still just trying to confirm your bias.

Immunologic processes may play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of psychiatric disorders,...

We now suspect that immunologic processes may also play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of psychiatric disorders,...

As with all the previous hedge words, "may" and "suspect" are always clear signs they don't have the evidence for their claims.

Depression is not an inflammatory disorder

Probably the most important lessons that we have learned about inflammation and depression are that depression is not an inflammatory disorder and not every patient with depression has increased inflammation.

Seems to directly refute your central claim.

The difficulty in addressing this question is that the answer depends on the patient population being considered. ...

These data suggest that inflammation is transdiagnostic in nature, occurring in subpopulations of patients within a number of psychiatric disorders.

Both highlighting the inherent weakness of results gleaned from small, unrepresentative samples. This whole article you posted seems to have avoided giving any sample sizes at all.

[C C]

Further evidence that depression is a dysfunctional brain condition and NOT a character flaw.

I'd like to say that anyone with severe depression, severe bipolar disorder, severe schizophrenia, etc probably needs to be on medication. But apparently there is a percentage that doesn't need such anymore after a treatment period, or whatever alternatives. (Whether these claims made by online psychologists actually reference extreme cases is another matter.)

One of my cousins has a son who is bipolar. Like so many, he doesn't like taking the drugs and when off of them he threatens to kill her and others, has several times destroyed equipment/property and been arrested, rambles on and on about conspiracies and plots against him, etc.

I don't envy her. He lives not far from her because she apparently has some partial watchdog-ship of him. If I was stuck with him, I'd hand him over to some Mahatma or institution (with the free time and the resources) that promised to condition him into something harmless, without medication, only if they footed all the bills and accepted total legal responsibility for everything he did. Otherwise, that's one second cousin who would be kept doped to the uppermost part of his ginger, carrot top.

[Magical Realist]

Further evidence that depression is a dysfunctional brain condition and NOT a character flaw.

I'd like to say that anyone with severe depression, severe bipolar disorder, severe schizophrenia, etc probably needs to be on medication. But apparently there is a percentage that doesn't need such anymore after a treatment period, or whatever alternatives. (Whether these claims made by online psychologists actually reference extreme cases is another matter.)

One of my cousins has a son who is bipolar. Like so many, he doesn't like taking the drugs and when off of them he threatens to kill her and others, has several times destroyed equipment/property and been arrested, rambles on and on about conspiracies and plots against him, etc.

I don't envy her. He lives not far from her because she apparently has some partial watchdog-ship of him. If I was stuck with him, I'd hand him over to some Mahatma or institution (with the free time and the resources) that promised to condition him into something harmless, without medication, only if they footed all the bills and accepted total legal responsibility for everything he did. Otherwise, that's one second cousin who would be kept doped to the uppermost part of his ginger, carrot top.

My mother was bipolar type 1, and when she went manic she would spiral into wild delusions, psychotic paranoia, and rambling incoherent speech on any topic called flight of ideas. It took many years and numerous visits to the psych ward to find the right medication cocktail that worked. Depakote, a seizure medication that was recently discovered to ameliorate bipolar symptoms, was a welcome relief in her quest for some semblance of normalcy in her final years.

People who knock psych meds simply have no experience in dealing with severe mental illness firsthand. I have a few nieces who are bipolar type 2 which is not near as bad as type 1 and presents more as depression than as manic episodes. They take meds but it's frustrating because they can't find the right combination that works for them. There's alot of progress being made with antipsychotic meds working for this type of depression.

I am personally grateful we live in a time where such progress is being made in treating mental illness. It definitely beats time served in an asylum where patients typically become overmedicated droolers staring outside windows all day.