When you meet her or read one of the many articles about her, Audrey Gruss appears to be polished, poised and proper. While these surface characteristics are accurate, the depth of her heart and soul, and commitment to helping others runs vast and deep. Her hope to make life better for millions of people across the globe is simply breathtaking. Her story begins with her late mother, Hope, who suffered from depression for decades. Audrey, her two sisters and her father witnessed first-hand the intense battle her mother fought throughout the years – psychic pain, misdiagnosis, trials of medications, side effects and so much more. Depression affects over 18 million adults in any given year and us the leading cause of disability worldwide. Severe depression is even rated in the same disability category as terminal stage cancer. So when her mother passed in 2005, Audrey vowed to work tirelessly towards “conquering this dreaded illness” and make finding a cure her personal mission.
Audrey & Martin Gruss Foundation
A year later Audrey established the Hope for Depression Research Foundation (HDRF), a non-profit organization with a mission to fund pioneering international scientific research into the origins, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of depression and its related mood and other emotional disorders, with the goal of finding a cure. Audrey has served as the Chairman of HDRF since its inception. She’s also the President of the Audrey and Martin Gruss Foundation, which she and her husband Martin established thirty years ago to support the cultural arts. The couple also funded the Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart and Stroke Center at Southampton Hospital.
Depression Task Force
What’s unique about HDRF’s research program is that they not only fund research, but they also created their own research group by hand-selecting several doctors who collectively work with the non-profit on strategy, development, and implementation. “We had to create our own research team because what we envisioned did not exist. Our Depression Task Force works collaboratively – they put all their data into the Hope Data Center at the University of Michigan and that data is shared among the doctors at HDRF – the ones that do the research. That’s really a very hard thing to do,” Audrey says. “It’s as though we are created our own mini neuroscience center,” she adds. Since its start, HDRF has also awarded 104 research grants at 48 research institutions in 12 countries and 18 U.S. cities. hopefordepression.org
Developing an Alternative to Prozac
And the research is paying off. Audrey continues to explain that “the HDRF doctors are now creating a version of a new category of anti-depressant that is completely new, since Prozac was introduced 35 years ago.” This was after only eight years of the HDRF doctors being brought together in this mission. “This is remarkable in the world of neuroscience. This usually takes decades,” adds Audrey. She goes on to say that HDRF did not create something brand new. They found an existing drug that has not been approved in the U.S. which they made a patented version of and it’s in clinical trials at Columbia University and Mount Sinai.
It’s a fact that better medication to help with depression is desperately needed. Studies today estimate that up to 35-50 percent of people suffering from depression do not positively respond to existing antidepressant medications called SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
5K Race of Hope
In addition to the Week of Hope, in which business round the Hamptons show their support for the fight against depression, Audrey Gruss and her organization also host a 5k Race of Hope. This year will mark their sixth annual Race of Hope to Defeat Depression in Southampton Village. Candace Bushnell, author, journalist, and the creator of the bestselling Sex and the City anthology, will attend as this year’s celebrity Grand Marshall to cheer on the race’s participants and lead them on a beautiful 5K (3.1 mile) loop around Lake Agawam in Southampton Village. The Race is open to all ages and speeds and walkers are also welcome. The Race of Hope has raised over $1 million for research since its inception in 2016. raceofhopeseries.com