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Depressed Hamsters Help Researchers
Ant wrote to mention an ABC News article indicating that hampsters feel the same effects during the winter months as humans do. Known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), winter-related depression affects up to 20 percent of Americans. From the article: "For example, if the animals spend more time hovering near the walls of their containers, rather than at the center, it's believed they feel more anxious. If they decline to slurp up tempting offers of sugar water, scientists take it as a sign of depression. Another test involves placing the animals in water and seeing if they swim or simply give up and float. Hamsters don't sink apparently, but float in water. 'The sooner they give up in the water, the more depressed they are,' Pyter said. 'If you give them an antidepressant they don't give up as quickly.'"
There is no "P". Dear god. After all those years of that fucking hampsterdance crap, people would've learnt that that's the wrong way to spell it.
Let's see... cage up some hamsters, deprive them of natural light, natural surroundings, and buddies, give them an artificial sucrose-laden diet, see how they get depressed, give them drugs to make them happy? And then suggest that these results could apply to people?
Animal models for testing antidepressant drugs do have a surprisingly good track record of predicting clinical efficacy in humans. Drugs that work in humans show strong effects in these animal models
Get out of your cage, get into the open, make better relationships, find a job that respects you, stop moving home every couple of years, start talking to your family not shouting at them, eat decent food instead of that sugar-laden "lo-fat" junk you're stuffing your face with, stop watching TV, cut down on the booze, and the religion, and for baby jesus' sake, stop taking artificial drugs.
I agree with your statements about living a healthy life to cut the risk of getting depression, but for some people (e.g., those with genetic predispostion), regardless of their life style, are still afflected with depression. Furthermore, depression is no laughing matter. It has an enormous social and economic impact. For these people, antidepressant drugs can be life saving.
It's Seasonal Attitude Disorder. Attitude. Not Affective.