How a depression test devised by a Zoloft marketer became a crutch for a failing mental health system

A bedrock of the U.S. mental health system — a nine-item questionnaire used to spot depression — began not with a doctor, but with a marketing man. Howard Kroplick, now 73 years old and living on Long Island, is obsessed with antique racing cars and, in his storied career in the pharmaceutical industry, crucially urged Pfizer to avoid the word “impotence” when promoting Viagra.