Doctor questions depression diagnosis

SYDNEY, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- An Australian psychiatrist says clinical depression is being over-diagnosed.

Dr. Gordon Parker of the University of New South Wales said many people being diagnosed with depression may just be feeling a bit blue, the Australian Broadcast Corp. said Friday.

"My personal view is that it is normal for humans to become depressed," he said. "We can call that normal depression and there's also clinical depression."

Clinical depression was once diagnosed in about 5 to 10 percent of the population, he said. Current diagnostic criteria would cover up to 90 percent of the population.

Parker says criteria introduced in the 1980s broadened the definition of depression to include minor conditions. "Clinical depression in the old days was black melancholia," he said. "Now we've got blue becoming the new black."

Ian Hickie of the University of Sydney rejected Parker's theory in a debate published in the British Medical Journal. He said people with lesser forms of depression are more likely to be at risk from premature death than the general population and often go on to develop major depression.

"The increased treatment rate is a Godsend," he said.