Treatment outcomes for depression: challenges and opportunities (2020) Wolpert et al.

Is "having depression" the same as "having a depressive disorder"? They sound different and yet the title refers to "depression" and the first sentence to "depressive disorder".

 

Quantity is not superior to quality when that quantity is mostly doing the same things over and over again and rarely focuses on relevant factors. Truth is the quality of research in this field is abysmal and even the quantity is unimpressive given the repetition and inability to unanchor from old beliefs and simplistic aphorisms.

So, yes, the lack of knowledge is entirely down to scarcity of competent high-quality research. Well, that and the fact that we know next to nothing about the brain and have no means of actually testing for depression, which leads to various unrelated things being lumped together based on superficial characteristics. But the horrible quality of research and overbearing presence of beliefs and ideologies is responsible for at least 90% of the lack of progress.

Too many assertions, too little genuine understanding. Even physicists are very careful with making assertions about the most-tested scientific theories known to science. Mental health research and clinical practice is dominated by confident assertions based on absolutely nothing, reflective of a juvenile field that still has to learn to walk before it starts demanding trophies for having thought about winning a marathon.