An extraordinary result about untreated depression.

I came across this while reading a blog post from a superb blog.
http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Home/D6B7C500-5324-423B-BA01-C57B306C0F2D.html

From
http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Home/D6B7C500-5324-423B-BA01-C57B306C0F2D_files/The%20naturalistic%20course%20of%20major%20depression%20n%20the%20absence%20of%20somatic%20therapy.PDF
"
Our analysis of the subgroup of depressed subjects who
went without somatic therapy throughout the entire course of
their depressive illness yielded a median episode duration of
13 weeks-nearly identical to what Coryell et al. (1995)
reported in a separate cohort of subjects who did not receive
somatic treatment. Subseqent to the the first 3 months of illness,
the spontaneous remission rate appears to decrease dramatically,
though a substantial number continue to recover so that
by the end of I year, only 15% of the subjects who had not
received any antidepressant medication treatment were still
depressed.
"
Which leads the authors to say
"
If as many as 85% of depressed individuals who go
without somatic treatment spontaneously recover within 1
year, it would be extremely difficult for any intervention to
demonstrate a superior result to this.
"

Its not a high quality study though the analysis seems sound and its not
the only study to show a similar result including a meta-analysis by one
of the study authors.

There's another useful paper the blogger's has online.
http://www.madinamerica.com/madinamerica.com/Depression_files/Characteristics%20and%20significance%20of%20untreated%20major%20depressive%20disorder.PDF