The World Health Organization has predicted that by 2030, more people will be affected by depression than any other health problem. Yet of all the dysfunctions of modern medicine, the way we treat depression may be the worst.

As I outlined in "Are You Depressed, Or Just Human?"...

It is a rare human act that is utterly reprehensible. Some glimmer of grace, some hope for redemption shines through nearly all of our efforts.

And then, Jonathan Safran Foer reminds us in his new book, Eating Animals there is factory farming of living creatures.

Perhaps you have seen...

Do cell phones cause cancer? The question has nagged researchers and users for the entire time - roughly the last 20 years - that these phones have been in common use.

The Food and Drug Administration's website states, "The weight of scientific evidence has not linked cell phones with...

Depression can be devastating. Its worst form, major depressive disorder, is marked by all-encompassing low mood, thoughts of worthlessness, isolation, and loss of interest or pleasure in most or all activities. But this clinical description misses the deep, experiential horror of the condition; the suffocating sense of despair that can...

Is it all over for health care reform? Is it true that "the fix is in" as my colleague Marcia Angell, M.D., has put it? Is the Baucus plan -- the one that manages the improbable feat of making the developed world's most expensive, least effective health care system...

In a political battle marked by ignorance, spin and venality, it's my pleasure to present two paragraphs of common sense:

Heading into the health care debate, there was only ever one genuinely dangerous idea out there, and that was a single-payer system. Used by every single developed country outside the...

I am encouraged.

There was much to like in President Obama's Wednesday night health care reform speech to a joint session of Congress.

First, he promised to freeze out of the debate those who spew nonsense about death panels and similar claptrap. He thus exiled the bad-faith obstructionists to...

As an American, you have a right to good health care that is effective, accessible, and affordable, that serves you from infancy through old age, that allows you to go to practitioners and facilities of your choosing, and that offers a broad range of therapeutic options.

We currently have an...

In "Should You Get Your Drug Information From an Actor?" I discussed the pharmaceutical industry's egregious practice of using celebrity-driven, prime time television commercials to promote drugs directly to consumers. Illegal in most of the world -- and legal in this country only since 1985 -- this kind...

Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist. And doctors -- despite many expectations to the contrary -- are human beings.

This is one reason why medical costs in the U.S. have spiraled out of control,...

The query gripping the nation: "How do we reform health care?"

But I don't hear anyone asking a far more essential question: "What is health?"

Given that we all want health and spend trillions to "care" for it, it's sobering how little thought we give to its true meaning....

Sally Field is a talented actor. But what qualifies her to promote Boniva, an osteoporosis drug that is of limited benefit, has worrisome side effects, and for which there are natural alternatives that merit careful consideration?

In "What's Wrong with American Medicine?" I point out that many...

The latest development appears to be that government-run health insurance programs are, if not off the table, at least sliding toward the edge. Meanwhile, town hall debates rage, Washington lobbyists (outnumbering senators and congressmen by an astounding six to one) hector Congress and the signal-to-noise ratio in the...

I appeared on Larry King Live Wednesday night to discuss health care reform with a panel of respected, high-profile physicians. I sounded the themes I wrote about in The Wrong Diagnosis: that Americans must change the content of health care, not just access to it, or we'll remain among...

In discussing health care reform, it's easy to become mired in statistics and abstractions, so let's examine it in personal terms. Here's the story of a patient I saw recently that provides a specific example of what medicine does now -- and what, in my view, it must learn to...

I'm worried -- and if I'm worried, you should be, too.

The reason I'm worried is that the wrong diagnosis is being made.

As any doctor can tell you, the most crucial step toward healing is having the right diagnosis. If the disease is...