Hi Susan - Seems like most people do get depressed during treatment. It's a pretty tough road to get through. My son was on depression meds and there were still days when he was really down. As a CG it is dfficult to know when to be gentle and when to be firm. Certainly, anything your sister is concerned about should be brought up with her doctor just to ease her mind, and yours too. My son resorted to an improvised form of sign language with me and "saved" his raspy voice for when people came to visit. But the voice did come back and he's fine, now. Re the mouth rinses, there are several different types. My son used the Magic Mouth Wash and several others and it seemed that they would work for a while and then not so well he would come back to one of the previous ones he had used that worked again! Everybody reacts differently so if something doesn't work, it pays to try something else.