Marianne J. LegatoMarianne J. Legato, MD, Ph. D. (hon. c.), FACP is an internationally renowned academic, physician, author, lecturer, and pioneer in the field of gender-specific medicine. She is a Professor Emerita of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Dr.

Depression has a widespread and devastating impact on health.  It is associated with disturbances in the endocrine, cardiovascular and immune systems as well as affecting bone health.  The risk of coronary artery disease is three times higher among men with a diagnosis of depression; interestingly, there is no increased risk for women.  After they have had a heart attack,  depressed patients have a 3.5 increase in cardiovascular mortality.  Applying new criteria developed by the World Bank, Harvard University, and the World Heath Organization, researches found that major depression is the leading cause of disability and lost days from work in developed countries, including the United States.

I have lived a life of privilege in a society where my education and opportunities to contribute to others are respected and acknowledged. But most women in the world are not as fortunate: the horrendous injustices and abuses that the majority have experienced (and which are not only tolerated but perpetuated) have troubled me all my

At the beginning of the new year in a new century that  has witnessed some of the most profound changes in biomedical science,  it seems important to consider the meaning of what we have discovered and whether our views of the new powers we have acquired are perhaps simplistic. Certainly, our view of how life