The Dangers Accelerate Leaving depression untreated can be fatal. And you really do begin to think about how to get rid of this pain, this shame, this fraud, this endless darkness. It was only after he returned ill from an assignment in famine-ravaged Ethiopia that he got help. Physically depleted, he checked into New York s Lenon Hill Hospital. There he was diagnosed with depression and put on anti-depressants.
Depression can shorten men s lives in other ways as well.
A 40-year Johns Hopkins study found that men who have suffered from depression have more than double the risk of developing heart disease. A Swedish study showed that, even after excluding suicide, depressive disorders were associated with death rates on a par with those for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Another long-term study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, indicated that the bodies of depressed men seem to age at an accelerated rate. A temporary downturn in mood in response to unhappy events is common, even appropriate. That s not depression.