Unlike Peggy Quilty (“Instead of a new drug for depression, consider a health and wellness path,’’ Letters, Feb. 12), I applaud research that could lead to a new treatment for depression, even if that treatment is (gasp) a new medication. Different people respond to different treatments, and it is paternalistic and cruel to advocate that we should effectively say “Tough luck’’ to those for whom existing treatments have not worked, and who have not been able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps of healthy living.

Sara Hanna, Natick