(Bloomberg) -- Senator John Fetterman has been released from a hospital near Washington where he underwent six weeks of treatment for depression, his office said Friday night.
“I am extremely grateful to the incredible team at Walter Reed. The care they provided changed my life,” Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said in a statement. “I will have more to say about this soon, but for now I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works.”
Fetterman has returned to his home in Braddock, Pennsylvania, and plans to go back to work at the Capitol after a two-week Senate recess, according to the statement.
Fetterman, 53, entered Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Feb. 15. His office added in the statement that the neuropsychiatrist who oversaw his treatment, David Williamson, said the senator’s depression was “now in remission.”
He won election to the Senate last November despite suffering a stroke shortly before the Democratic primary and being sidelined for much of the campaign. Shortly before entering Walter Reed, he was hospitalized after feeling lightheaded.
Depression is common following a stroke, according to the American Stroke Association. Fetterman’s office said earlier that he had experienced depression throughout his life but it became more severe in the past year.
The election helped determine which party controlled the US Senate. Fetterman, then the state’s lieutenant governor, defeated the Republican candidate, Mehmet Oz, a physician and former talk show host.
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