The Herald Sun of Melbourne calls Thorpe's plight "the saddest and most heartbreaking story in Australian sport."
Thorpe also is being treated for a back injury. His emotional problems were exacerbated by his failed comeback attempt at the 2012 Olympics.
Thorpe's struggles became public last year in an autobiography. In it he wrote: "Not even my family is aware that I've spent a lot of my life battling what I can only describe as crippling depression," he wrote.
A hero at the 2008 Athens Games, Thorpe said in an interview last year he has a future in the pool despite failing to qualify for the London Games.
"I simply didn't have enough time to prepare the way I wanted to and I had to compromise," he told the BBC.
"Now I can do exactly the training that I need to do with time on my side and I can get a preparation that will enable me to swim really well."
It was perhaps a vain hope.
