What is depression?

Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. Depressive disorders are characterized by pervasive mood changes that affect all aspects of an individual's daily functioning. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood and is more than a case of persistent sadness. Symptoms of depression also include feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt, lack of interest in daily activities, and even thoughts of suicide.

Causes of Depression Depression – is a complex psychological disorder that has no single cause. Typically, the causes of depression is triggered by a variety of reasons, and they can be both obvious and hidden. Scientists have isolated a number of major factors causing the depression. First of all, it’s – heredity. The chances of falling into depression in children whose parents suffer from illness or suicidal tendencies, much higher than in children from the “healthy” families. Studies have shown that there are genetic predisposition to the symptoms of manic-depressive psychosis. In addition, if a family member suffers from depression, it is transferred to the homely atmosphere – a feeling trap when there is no place to hide and unwittingly becomes a child hostage of depression. The next group of factors – psychological. These doctors include feelings of loneliness, rejected, family conflicts, and more. Particularly strong effect of these emotions have to if they were tested in the early or adolescence. Neuroscientists have seen here a clear relationship between traumatic events and changes in the neurophysiology of the brain – changes the neutral stress pathways and all subsequent events that may somehow reminded of his experiences can cause long-term or chronic depression. External factors – another important group of reasons. This could include any kind of stress caused by external circumstances. This may be a problem at work, conflicts with others, natural disasters, etc. It can also be attributed, and physical well-being – for example, excess cortisol can create a certain imbalance in the brain, which, in turn, promptly can lead to depression. Chronic or prolonged illness enters a person into a state of frustration, anxiety and shock, which, coupled with a sense of hopelessness and helplessness can seriously interfere with the usual normal life. And this is one of the first bells of impending depression. However, there is a reasonable question – why stress causes someone to mobilize their forces, while others – leads to depression? It is likely that this matter the severity of stress, as well as genetic predisposition, or so-called “genetic ability” to tolerate stress. More recently, in textbooks on psychotherapy, the causes of depression are classified and violation of chemical equilibrium in the brain. Of heredity we mentioned earlier, then – the fact that depression can be treated quite successfully with medication method says that its course and the reasons lie in the brain occur in chemical processes. As an additional argument may be added that in some cases to identify the cause of depression is almost impossible. Therefore, it is important to understand that there is consequence, what is the cause – a violation of the chemical balance entails a pessimistic mood and depression, or stress exposure affects the normal secretion of neurotransmitters within the brain? Surprisingly, most of the diseases in the psychological aspects include depressive symptoms. For some people it may be caused by taking some medications – such as birth control pills, medications for cardiac patients, medications to lower pressure, Ativan, Halcyon, cortisone, antibiotics, etc. Alcohol also contributes to depression if they are abused. Physiological or psychological causes of depression are many. For each person, they are unique. However, when the first symptoms of the disease should immediately begin to take action, or depression can result in running the most unfortunate and unintended consequences! The World Health Organisation study surveyed over 37,000 people who were aged between 18 and 64 years of age, from 22 countries.  Data was collected on earnings, employment, demographics and education.  Researchers also conducted interviews and diagnosed 15 separate mental health disorders.  There were 11 countries were classified as high income, 5 in the upper-middle income level and 6 were classified as low/low-middle income.  Findings indicated that early onset of mental health disorders was linked to a much lower household income in the 11 countries that were classified as high income and the 5 that were in the middle-income countries. Dr John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry, said, “These new data suggest that the increased demands of economically advanced societies ‘unmask’ functional deficits that are not evident when the same problems emerge in less developed societies.  It highlights the importance of understanding how adaptation breaks down in our society so that rehabilitative and pharmacologic strategies might be developed to help affected individuals adapt.” Dr Norito Kawakami from the University of Tokyo, who was also the lead author of the study, commented that ‘policy makers in health often fail to appreciate the capital costs that are associated with early onset mental disorders that are left untreated. Dr Ronald Kessler, who was also involved in the study, said “The amount of lost adult income associated with early-onset mental health disorders is so great that the costs of implementing early interventions for these disorders would be more than paid back, even if they led to only a  small proportion decrease in this lost adult income.”