Opioids can be helpful for depression but probably wouldn't help everyone. I read an article on that last summer in Vanity Fair, I think, of all places. It was written by a woman who had tried everything for depression and they told her she had "treatment resistant depression." Then she tried opioids and voila, she was better! She wrote a lot about the difficulty in getting narcotics in the U.S. because of the extreme restrictions regarding their prescription (due to their addiction potential). It was a really interesting article. The opioid she used was one that tended to not be as addicting as others. I am glad this woman found something to help her. I guess using opioids to treat depression is more common in some other countries (France sticks in my mind). But most docs here won't touch this with a ten foot pole.