Why a modern approach to healthcare must consider more than illness — SkimNews
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- Antidepressants were created nearly 40 years ago as a breakthrough for mental illness, yet rates of depression have continued rising since their introduction.
- Psychologist Kimberley Wilson argues that exercise and dietary changes — including omega-3 — are effective in treating depression and can match the most evidence-backed therapy.
- Richard Nixon's administration reduced US mental health research funding for social factors, shaping a pharmaceutical-first mental health model that persists decades later.
- GLP-1 medications are cited as a recent example of drugs with dramatic impact on diabetes, cardiovascular health, depression, and low self-esteem — and are increasingly being prescribed to children.
- Researchers are increasingly recognizing interconnected systems such as the gut-brain axis and heart-brain axis, moving away from fragmented, single-organ models of health.
Why it matters: With depression rates still rising despite four decades of pharmaceutical-led treatment, psychologist Kimberley Wilson argues that lifestyle interventions like exercise and omega-3 should join — not replace — medication. Her challenge to the Nixon-era funding model reframes mental health as inseparable from physical health.
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