Voice and audience
Every page is written in plain English for a general audience. The default reader is a person who is having a hard week and is looking for something useful, accurate, and not condescending. Sentences are short. Paragraphs are short. Clinical terms are defined in line. Specialist terms link to the glossary. Pages avoid jargon, hedging, and filler.
Pages are written for readers in the United States. Where information varies by country, we say so. Crisis resources listed on this site are U.S.-specific.
What we will and will not publish
We publish general clinical education on depression, related conditions, treatments, and resources. We publish our own corrections, our review process, and our funding model. We name our reviewer.
We do not publish individual medical advice. We do not publish recommendations of specific medications or doses for individual readers. We do not publish unverified personal stories. We do not publish content that has not been clinically reviewed. We do not publish sponsored content, advertorial, or paid placements. We do not publish anything that uses depression for engagement.
Sourcing
Clinical claims on this site are drawn from a defined list of recognized sources. The list is on the Sources and Evidence page. The short version: NIMH, SAMHSA, the American Psychiatric Association, NICE, WHO, CDC, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Cochrane Library, and PubMed for primary studies. Where a single guideline or study underpins a specific claim, that source is named in the page.
We do not source clinical claims from social media, single anecdotes, blog posts, or commercial educational sites that lack original sourcing.
Numbers, statistics, and uncertainty
Statistics on this site are taken from primary sources and dated. We use ranges where the evidence gives ranges. We use the word "about" where the underlying number is an estimate. We do not give a single statistic for a single year as if it were a fixed truth.
We name uncertainty where it exists. Where research is moving, the page says so. Where guidance differs across guidelines, the page says so. We do not flatten this for a cleaner read.
Crisis content
Pages about suicide, self-harm, and crisis follow safe-messaging guidance from the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. We do not describe specific methods, locations, or scenes. We do not romanticize. We do put crisis resources at the top of crisis pages and we keep them visible.
Medications and treatment
Medications are discussed by class and by mechanism, with examples named. Specific doses for specific people are not given. Decisions to start, stop, or change medications belong with a prescriber. The site repeats this in plain language because the difference between general and individual matters here.
Authorship and review
Pages are reviewed by a board-certified psychiatrist before publication and on a recurring schedule after. Reviewer names and review dates are visible at the bottom of every clinical page. The full review process is on the Medical Review Process page.
Updates and dating
Every clinical page on this site has a "Last reviewed" date. The date is the date of the last clinical review, not the date of any small text edit. Where a guideline or major study has changed our understanding of a topic, the page is updated, dated, and noted in a small "Updates" line at the bottom of the page.
Corrections
We correct mistakes openly. The full corrections policy is on the Corrections Policy page. The short version: send corrections to support@depressionresource.org; we respond within 5 business days and resolve confirmed errors within 14 days, faster for safety-related issues. Please do not include medical history, symptoms, or other protected health information in email. Email is not a secure channel and is not monitored for clinical purposes.
Funding and conflicts of interest
DepressionResource.org is a publication of shrinkMD Publishing Inc., a private company. The site does not accept advertisements, sponsored content, or affiliate revenue. The site does not sell products. The site is not a marketing channel for any clinical service. Where shrinkMD is referenced as a resource, the reference is editorially limited and is disclosed.
Use of AI
Editorial drafts may use AI tools as a writing aid. Every clinical claim, every source, and every safety message is checked and signed off by a clinician before publication. AI tools are not used to generate medical opinions, sources, or statistics.
Privacy and data
This site does not require an account, does not ask for medical history through forms, and does not run ad tracking. Full privacy practices are on the Privacy Policy page.
Accessibility
Pages are built to WCAG 2.1 AA as a baseline. Full accessibility practices are on the Accessibility Statement page.
Word choices
We say "people with depression," not "depressives." We say "died by suicide," not "committed suicide." We say "attempted suicide," not "failed suicide." We use "psychiatric illness" and "mental health condition" interchangeably and avoid "mental illness" as a single label. We use plain words ahead of clinical words wherever possible.
Promise to readers
Our standards in one paragraph: every clinical page is written in plain language, dated, and reviewed against current clinical guidelines and peer-reviewed literature. Errors are corrected in the open. Nothing on this site is for sale, and nothing on it is individual medical advice. Crisis information stays prominent on every page that needs it.