New Delhi: A comment by an AIIMS Delhi professor describing depression as one of the conditions linked to “lifestyle” has triggered debate over how mental-health disorders are described.
IRS officer Shubhrata Prakash, who has herself battled depression, and IHBAS psychiatrist Dr Om Prakash have questioned whether such framing could add to the stigma surrounding the illness.
What the AIIMS professor said
The controversy began after Professor Rima Dada of the Department of Anatomy at AIIMS Delhi spoke about lifestyle-related diseases and listed depression alongside conditions such as obesity, diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
“Whether it is PCOS, obesity, diabetes, depression, or any other lifestyle disease, there are only three or four primary causes. One is a sedentary lifestyle: sitting in front of the TV or screens all day, not playing, not going for walks, and staying confined indoors. Secondly, we observe that our diets today are very rich in carbohydrates. We are consuming highly processed foods, which we classify as a highly inflammatory diet,” Dada told news agency ANI.
IRS officer Shubhrata Prakash, who has spoken publicly about her own experience with depression for years, responded to the remarks on social media.
“Do you really have evidence that depression is a ‘lifestyle’ disease with ‘only three or four primary causes’?” she asked, adding,
“Don’t we have enough stigma already around mental disorders like depression without more being added to it from a place of excellence like AIIMS?”
Psychiatrist questions ‘lifestyle’ framing
Psychiatrist Dr Om Prakash of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) also responded to the discussion.
“In 25+ years of clinical practice, I see this every day: depression is a medical illness of bio-psycho-social origin that produces real disability. It is not a lifestyle choice or a character flaw. That myth delays care and adds needless shame. Evidence-based treatment works. Please seek help early,” he wrote on X.
Speaking to ThePrint, Dada clarified that she did not mean that lifestyle was the sole cause of depression.
“Lifestyle is one of the reasons. Unhealthy food, lack of exercise and other bad habits can contribute to depression. PCOS can also trigger depression. It can also happen because of genetics and other reasons as well,” she said.
Prakash has spoken publicly about her experience with depression for years. In 2023, ThePrint wrote about her long battle with the illness. She described it as beginning around 2012 and continuing through some of the most difficult years of her life.
She said she frequently experienced suicidal thoughts, struggled to function, and spent much of four years away from work.
Prakash eventually returned to work and has since used her own experience to speak openly about depression and challenge the stigma surrounding mental illness.
She has written extensively about mental health on social media and authored The D Word: A Survivor’s Guide to Depression.
She now visits colleges and universities to spread awareness about depression and mental health.
Edited by Maryam Hassan