LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Depression and treatments are life saving

To the editor—I was disappointed to read United States3. When causes of death are University of California, Los Angeles in your September 2002 issue a classifica- examined by age group, the importance Los Angeles, California, USA tion of and antiobesity of suicide as a cause of death is self-evi- Email: [email protected] drugs as “lifestyle drugs”1. Depression is dent (Table 1)3. Moreover, depression is not a lifestyle; it is a severe medical disor- an independent risk factor for heart dis- We reply—We certainly agree that depres- der that has been recognized as such ease, which is the leading cause of mor- sion and obesity are potentially life-threat- 2 since antiquity . Melancholia (black bile tality in the US. In this context, ening conditions, and regret the in Greek) is a subtype of depression that treatment is not a characterization of these in our news story was named by Hippocrates 2,500 years lifestyle option, it is a life-saving neces- as mere “lifestyles”. However, we stand by ago. It is the only disease category to sity. the main part of the piece, which focused have survived in its original name from Obesity is also a key contributor to not only on these conditions, but on other the Hippocratic classification of disease morbidity and mortality and can have a afflictions currently the focus of pharma- 2 based on the four humors . Moreover, profound negative impact on health and ceutical development, including hair loss, people die of depression, and do so in life expectancy. Obesity is associated age-associated wrinkling, graying hair and great numbers. Depression is the major with diabetes, heart disease, pulmonary smoking cessation. To some extent, cause of suicide. According to recently disorders, bone and joint disease, repro- whether these afflictions are life “threaten- released information from the Centers ductive diseases, cancer and gallstones. ing” or life “style” is a matter of degree, for Disease Control and Prevention Moreover, modern research has recog- which will vary widely between individu- http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine (CDC), in the year 2000 suicide was the nized a strong genetic component to als. Finally, we would like to make the 11th highest cause of death in the obesity. point that many of the “lifestyle drugs” It is simply unacceptable to label as described are widely advertised to the pub- Table 1 CDC data on suicide in the U.S. “lifestyle drugs” treatments for diseases lic, which consequently may be tempted of gene–environment interactions, such to obtain and take these drugs even in the Age-group Ranking of suicide as as depression and obesity, which are seri- absence of a life-threatening condition. cause of death ous public health problems worldwide. 5–14 5th 1. Atkinson, T. Lifestyle drug market booming. Nature 15–24 3rd JULIO LICINIO & MA-LI WONG Med. 8, 909 (2002). 25–44 4th 2. Wong, M.-L. & Licinio, J. Research and treatment ap- Laboratory For Pharmacogenics proaches to depression. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 2, 45–64 8th Neuropsychiatric Institute 343–351 (2001). Death data is preliminary for 2000. 3. National Vital Statistical Reports. vol. 49, number 12, David Geffen School of Medicine 9 October, 2001, CDC, Atlanta.

© Group 2002 Nature Publishing How to submit microarray data

Nature Medicine will implement a new policy regarding microarray experiments on 1 December 2002. As discussed in a recent editorial in Nature (419, 323; 2002), Nature Medicine will now require authors to submit microarray data in accordance with the Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment guidelines issued by the Microarray Gene Expression Data society. The guidelines include a checklist of rele- vant information that should be included with every new microarray submission, and can be found online at http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_check- list.html. The supplementary information must be supplied with the manuscript on five compact discs, at the time of submission, in a format compatible with commonly available software packages. We will also require that data central to the paper’s con- clusions be deposited in a public database for microarray data and accession num- bers provided, where available, at or before acceptance for publication. By adopting this policy, we hope that the explicit description of experimental design and methods will facilitate the review and replication of microarray results.

1336 NATURE MEDICINE • VOLUME 8 • NUMBER 12 • DECEMBER 2002