A new study suggests that oral anti-depression protocols won’t lighten a person’s mood until they brighten his or her personality—two personality traits that predispose people to depression must be affected first. They are high neuroticism* and low extraversion**, both of which have been linked to depression. As measured on a standard personality questionnaire, high neuroticism involves  . . .

Susan Boyle, arguably the world’s favorite new chanteuse, has been sharing some old secrets about her secret battle with depression. The 'I Dreamed a Dream” and now “Cry Me A River” singer recently admitted that she’s prone to mood swings and fits of anger, saying her condition has its roots in her childhood when she was bullied and beaten "every day" as a schoolchild.

A distraught Alexa Ray Joel, the 23 year old daughter of Billy “The Piano Man” Joel, succumbed to depression and swallowed 8 naturopathic pills containing St. John’s Wort and other benign herbs, then, thinking she was dying, freaked out and called 911. "EMS workers received a message from the 911 dispatcher saying: 'Female caller. Took eight pills. Wants to die. Now feels funny. Wants to live,' sources said." Paramedics rushed to Alexa’s West Village apartment and whisked her off to St. Vincent's Hospital a few blocks away.

One source categorized the episode as "a cry for help."She was released a few hours later and her publicist released a statement saying, “She is stable,” soon after she was brought to the hospital. Her mother, former supermodel Christie Brinkely, took her daughter to an undisclosed location.

Alicia “The Princess of Soul” Keys has revealed just how personal her new album 'The Element of Freedom' is. The record was written about her depressed feelings following the death of her grandmother. "With the last album, I was really trying to find myself and I was feeling extremely overworked." Alicia says. "I was snappy, I was nasty, I was mean, losing my grandmother during that time as well. Everything felt like it could all just tumble down at once. I was also starting to understand that I was dealing with certain people in business that were not really for me and they all had their intentions and thoughts." Explaining further about the recording of her fourth album, Alicia went on to add: "I found more freedom. Now there's a mixture of strong and delicate. A new sound, a new emotion. That's a lot of who I am right now. In the past, I was locking myself in the studio because I thought it was the only way to create music. This was a more casual way to do it."  The Element of Freedom is Alicia’s fourth studio album and will be released on December 15, 2009.