STAVING OFF DEPRESSION: Deficiencies in key compounds that help the body make neurotransmitters may contribute to the intractability of depression in some people.© ISTOCK.COM/JM1366
In 2002, psychiatrist Lisa Pan, a depression and suicide prevention researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), met Kyle, a 19-year-old suffering from depression (name altered to preserve confidentiality). He was among the estimated 15 percent of depression patients in the U.S. for whom treatments such as antidepressants or therapy do not help. He “had been through every available treatment” including electroconvulsive therapy, but nothing worked, Pan recalls. “At one time, he was on 17 medications simultaneously.” The teenager had attempted suicide, and doctors determined that he was at risk for similar episodes. The next step for him would be state hospitalization.
Having exhausted conventional treatment options, Pan went off script. She enlisted a colleague at UPMC, geneticist David Finegold, to run tests ...
