Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after six weeks of inpatient treatment for clinical depression, with plans to return to the Senate when the chamber resumes session in mid-April, his office said Friday.

In a statement, Fetterman’s office said he is back home in Braddock, western Pennsylvania, with his depression in remission, and provided details about his treatment, including that his depression was treated with medication and that he wears hearing aids. for hearing loss.

It was the last medical installment for Fetterman, who won the most expensive Senate race last fall after suffering a stroke that he said nearly killed him and from which he is still recovering.

Fetterman, who has a wife and three school-aged children, said he is happy to be home.

I’m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the Pennsylvania Senator deserves. Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I always will have theirs,

said

said Fetterman. I am extremely grateful to Walter Reed’s incredible team. The care they provided has changed my life.”

Fetterman will return to the Senate the week of April 17.

Doctors describe remission as when a patient responds to treatment in such a way that they return to normal social functioning and are indistinguishable from someone who has never had depression.

In an interview that will air on CBS Sunday Morning, Fetterman said his symptoms intensified after he won the election in November.

The whole thing about depression,” he said, “is you may have won objectively, but depression can absolutely convince you that you really lost.

,

and that’s exactly what happened and that was the beginning of a downward spiral.

He said he didn’t get out of my bed, that I stopped eating, that I was losing weight, that I stopped doing some of the most things I love in my life.

Fetterman checked in with Walter Reed on February 15, after weeks of what aides described as

Fetterman the Senator

being withdrawn and uninterested in eating, discussing work or the usual banter with staff.

At the time, Fetterman, 53, had barely been on duty in Washington for a month and was recovering from the aftereffects of the stroke he suffered last May when he passed away on the advice of Capitol physician, Dr. Brian P. Monahan.

Depression after a stroke is common and treatable through medical and talk therapy, doctors say.

Fetterman’s return will be welcome news to Democrats

,

who have struggled to find votes for some nominations

in particular,

without him in the Senate.

Fetterman’s office has also released details of his treatment to medical professionals led by Dr. David Williamson, a neuropsychiatrist.

When admitted, Fetterman had “severe symptoms of depression with low energy and motivation, minimal speech, poor sleep, slowed thinking, slowed movements, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, but no suicidal thoughts,” the statement attributed to Williamson said.

Symptoms had steadily worsened over the past eight weeks, and Fetterman had stopped eating and drinking. That caused low blood pressure, the statement said.

His depression, now resolved, may have been a barrier to commitment, it said.

Fetterman suffered the stroke last May while campaigning in a three-way Democratic primary. He had surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator to treat two heart conditions, atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy.

One of the major Fetterman aftereffects of the stroke is an auditory processing disorder, which can leave a person unable to speak fluently and quickly convert spoken conversation into meaning. Fetterman uses devices in conversations, meetings and congressional hearings that transcribe spoken words in real time.