ABSTRACT
The Brain in Context, David Rubinow makes three large and important points about how to understand human illness, mental disorders, and suffering. The author also discusses the correlation between the presence of a single nucleotide and increased mortality in depressed individuals. Typically, research on health disparities and differential life expectancies focuses on race, gender, and ethnicity, with a particular emphasis on the differences between African Americans and white Americans. Perhaps surprisingly, these high rates persist even after controlling for the effect of HIV/AIDS and homicides. Instead, the higher death rates are due largely to injuries, especially for the younger men, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases. An increase in depression is tied to an increase in hypertension. Rubinow is right in suggesting that one can need to understand that complexity in order what is happening to our patients and that is a complexity well worth embracing. It is also a complexity that is everywhere.
