[marden]

Former senator, VP candidate Thomas Eagleton dies at 77

The Associated Press
Published: March 4, 2007

ST. LOUIS: Thomas F. Eagleton, a three-term Democratic senator from Missouri who resigned as George McGovern's vice presidential nominee in 1972 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized for depression, died Sunday in St. Louis, said a spokeswoman for Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Eagleton, 77, had suffered from a variety of illnesses and ailments in recent years. A cause of death was not disclosed. McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said the family was expected to release a statement later Sunday.

Eagleton was born in St. Louis in 1929, the son of noted civil trial attorney Mark Eagleton, who once ran unsuccessfully for mayor and encouraged his son's interest in politics. He was elected circuit attorney at age 26 in 1956, just three years after graduating from Harvard Law School. He was the youngest man ever elected to the position.

He was elected Missouri attorney general in 1960 and lieutenant governor in 1964 before winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1968. He won re-election in 1974 and 1980, retiring after his third term.

After McGovern chose the 42-year-old senator as his running mate, it was soon learned that Eagleton had suffered from depression and twice undergone shock treatments a decade earlier.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/...s-Eagleton.php

Does depression have the same stigma today as it had 30 years ago when Govern's presidential candidacy was sunk when Sen. Eagleton admitted treatment for depression?

[Big Mac]

I'd say not. Not even alcoholism or drug use can bar one from the oval office now.

[ghporter]

Senator Eagleton's depression was not what you could call "typical" depression. NOBODY gets shock treatments, now or then, for depression unless it's extremely serious and unremitting. Shock treatments, called "electroconvulsive therapy", are often the ONLY way some people with extremely serious depression get any relief, and some don't get relief even from that. Fortunately, the ECT seems to have helped the senator significantly, and he got his life back together.

Qhile I don't think there is quite the stigma with depression that there once was, it's still there.