Her first psychiatrist asked her about her family's history of mental illness.

When she mentioned her father had experienced some bipolar symptoms as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder from Vietnam, the doctor thought he had hit upon the answer.

"As soon as I said it, his eyes lit up and it got written on a chart," Jennifer says. "So whenever I came in it said, 'So and so says you're bipolar. I have some problems with depression, but no mania."

"I didn't think I wanted a drug, but they insisted no matter how I felt," she adds. "The people at UHS have been trained to prescribe medication. They're not equipped to deal with day-to-day problems."

When Melissa finally had to go on medication to stay at Harvard, she says UHS was not forthcoming about what would come along with the medication.

"I've been having a lot of side effects--dizzy, drowsy, headaches," she says. "I was just getting really frustrated [that the drugs were] causing problems that seemed worse than my depression."

Kadison says UHS does not use medication more than the average college health facility.

He estimates between 15 and 25 percent of MHS patients are on some form of medication, but many come to Harvard already medicated.