Neurobiology Of Depression: Article Analysis

Depression is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors (“Depression: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments” 2015). Researchers are becoming increasingly aware that depression runs in families (Kam,2009) meaning that certain genes may make people prone to depression suggesting a biological vulnerability. The biological factors that have some effect on the hereditary and biological influences of depression are the genes, hormones, and brain chemicals.

Major depression is a commonly diagnosed psychological disorder affecting individuals’ ability to feel happiness and peace of mind. Those who suffer experience negative emotions, lack of motivation, changes in behaviour and dysfunctional cognitive symptoms. Depression is classified by the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) as five of more of the listed symptoms present persistently over the same two weeks. One of these symptoms must be depressed mood or loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities. Depression causes disruption to typical daily life such as inability to maintain friendships and jobs. Other symptoms outlined by the DSM-5 include; insomnia, fatigue and recurrent thoughts of death. There is much debate over what exactly causes depression. Biological explanations question hereditary and neurotransmitter factors. While psychological theories include the cognitive ideas of Beck’s negative triad and hopelessness theory. This essay will focus on the ways in which psychological and biological explanations contrast and how their theories can overlap to better understand depression.

Through my research I wanted to learn about exactly what anti-depressants do chemically . I also wanted to determine what role genetics, heredity, environment, and biological factors play in depression. Though I was not able to answer all of these questions, I learned a lot about depression and even developed some theories of my own. For a long time, I have thought of some forms of depression as a weakness. I truly believed that in many cases it could be controlled by the depressed person themself. I also felt that environmental and personal factors played were the basis for depression. However, through what we have learned in class and from my research, I have come to realize that this theory is not completely true. Mood is a generalized control mechanism like sleep. Eating also exhibits many characteristics of generalized control mechanisms. Mood can be affected by sensory input and the I-function, but it is also autonomous in that it can vary independent of sensory input. This internal variation is pharmacologically dependent. Changes in a persons pharmacological makeup can cause mood changes, sleep disturbances, and even depression. The I-function influences mood manipulation but cannot determine mood. Though you may want to be in a good mood, make a conscious effort to think RhappyS thoughts, and may not have serious stressors in your life, you may still suffer clinical depression as a result of a chemical imbalance in your system. Depression can be physical and

Psychology, as most know, is the study of the mind and personal or group thoughts, feelings, and emotions in humans and animals. Scientists study, analyze, and investigate many areas of psychology, but the causes and effects of mood disorders and emotion irregularities are still unrecognized. Many studies were an attempt to find more information on mental illnesses. One of the most common illnesses in the United States is depression, also; it is the most often recognized mental illness in the world. What most clinicians don’t know, however, is what happens in the brains of patients before, during, and after depressive episodes.

The cause of Clinical depression has long been a mystery to physicians and researchers. Many different theories have been proposed, but no conclusive evidence has been put forth. However, most of what we know about depression stems from the results of certain drugs which have been successful in treating the clinically depressed. These anti--depressants have led to the assumption that depression is most likely due to a chemical imbalance (of neurotransmitters) which somehow leads to the symptoms of depression. To try and write a paper on all the theories of depression would be endless, as would be a study on all the different types of

Depression used to be diagnosed as melancholia..Between 1938 and 1955.Several reports showed that the commonness of depression in the general population was below 1%. “In the mid-1990s,the lifetime risk for depression was estimated as 3% to 4% worldwide.”(2) To control depression,the use of antidepressioants has grown rapidly since the late 1950s.By the late 1990s nearly 1.77 million people were taking one or even mulitiple antidepressioants for depression or diesases assumedly on the depressive spectrum.It has been suggested that in spite of the large uses of antidepressioants have been undertreated.

Depressive disorders do not cause just a momentary feeling of sadness, but instead initiate a long-term persistence of feeling upset or worthless. A patient having this disorder will lose interest in their former hobbies and will often spend time in a more secluded environment. Anxiety disorders are described as causing fear, worry, and uneasiness in individuals. Patients with these disorders feel a more unreasonable amount of fear in daily, or common situations. Adverse situations early in life triggers depression. There are noted abnormalities in the hypothalamo-pituitary -adrenal axis (HPA) with raised cortisol concentrations and dexamethasone nonsuppression in depressed patients. Depressed subjects with a history of child abuse show have

Depression is a debilitating mental disorder, which can be detrimental to a person’s way of living. For example, depression can cause an individual to have negative thoughts, experience chronic distress, and hopelessness (Pourbabaee, n.d.). Researchers focus on two causes of depression. Those who support the cognitive-behavioral perspective believe depression results from faulty thinking associated with low self-esteem or learned helplessness, as well as environmental influences such as the loss of a loved one or a job. Whereas, those who support the biological perspective believe depression results from the genes a person inherits, chemical imbalances that change the functions of the brain, as well as damage to the anatomy of the brain.

Depression has dramatically increased over the years. It is becoming a chronic disease for people. According to Wimett and Laustsen (2005), “Depression is a psychiatric disorder that affects an estimated 18 million U.S citizens and is expected to be the second leading cause of death or injury by 2020”. Depression is the change in brain chemistry that comes with a feeling of severe despondency and dejection. Although there are more than several types, the most familiar type is called Major Depressive Disorder. In 2003, Kessler, Berglurd, Demler, … & Wang noted that “Major Depressive Disorder is a common disorder, widely distributed in the population, and usually associated with substantial symptom severity and role impairment”. There are many types of treatment for Major Depressive Disorder, which include various types of therapies, electric shock therapy, and medication. The most common form of treatment is Cymbalta alongside some various types of therapy. Cymbalta is a medicine prescribed by doctors or therapists to reduce the symptoms of depression.

Depression effects different aspects of the anatomy of the brain. A common hypothesis is that depression stems from the limbic system (Carroll et al.; 1976). The limbic system is the part of the brain that regulates emotions, sexual drive, and responses to stimuli like stress; it is the part of the brain that senses “how you feel about stimuli”. The limbic system lies within the temporal lobe and includes the cingulate gyrus, the amygdala, the hypothalamus, the insular cortex, and the hippocampus. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is related to the expression of personality, and is broadly divided into three sections: the dorsolateral portion, the orbitofrontal or paralimbic portion, and the anterior cingulate cortex. The dorsolateral portion of

More severe cases would have been medicated. Therefore the result cannot be used to generalise for people who suffer from severe depression and can only be used to explain the effectiveness on mild to moderate depression. This doesn’t limit the usefulness of the paper as it still shows how antidepressant affect people however only those who suffer from mild to moderate symptoms not covering the full spectrum of different ranges of symptoms a patient could

Attempts were also made to induce depression by depleting serotonin levels, but these experiments reaped no consistent results. Likewise, researchers found that huge increases in brain serotonin, arrived at by administering high-dose L-tryptophan, were ineffective at relieving depression” (Lacasse & Leo, 2005) This statement perfectly highlights that even though a lack of serotonin is considered the main cause of depression, studies trying to prove this have been continuing to fail showing consistent

Depression have become a major problem in our society today. People who haven’t experience depression will not understand how it feel and what it can do to a person. Many people also doesn’t understand what depression is, or how it can related to suicidal ideation. In fact, studies have documented that the majority of young suicide victims had depression at the time of death and most suicide survivors were diagnosed with symptoms of clinical depression at the time of their attempt (Mojs, Biederman, Głowacka, Strzelecki, Ziemska, Samborski 2015). It can affect anyone, from young adolescents to college students to the elderly people. There are many reasons that can make someone have major depression. Such as financial problems, family problems, social problems, school, work, etc. These stressors in our daily life can cause anxiety which can increase our stress level significantly, which then can lead to depression. A research said that anxiety disorder have a high comorbidity with depression and that anxiety occur prior to the onset of depressive disorders in many individuals (Batterham, Christensen, Calear 2013). People who experience depression must find way to cope with depression and know how to get help in order to prevent suicidal ideation. The people surroundings, friends and family, must also find ways to recognize the symptoms of depression, and show understandings in order to help those suffering. This research project will help people understand more about

The severity of depression has been supported through scientific evidence that indicates that depression has a biological basis in the brain of a depressed person along with psychological and social implications. Whilst there are many catalysts in a person’s life that can be identified as a possible root cause of depression, such as stressful life events or the death of a loved one, the issue is far more complex, as the biological triggers of depression are not as easily expressed, such as faulty mood regulation in the brain, vulnerable genetics in the DNA, and other medical problems. Many things are altered in the brain of the depressed person. Firstly, what most understand to be an imbalance in the levels of chemicals that regulate emotions, is in reality far more elaborate. The true issue surrounding the many chemicals involved inside and outside of the nerve cells that undergo numerous chemical reaction which make up the dynamic system that is responsible for mood, perceptions, and the way one experiences life you experiences life can be altered in different ways that affect how one lives. Along with the brains chemicals, the connections between nerve cells called neurons decrease and deteriorate, meaning the

This source is mixed-method as it has both primary and secondary research. It uses statistics to show the amount of people that are using antidepressants which is the secondary aspect. The different types of harmful effects that antidepressants have on the human body are primary because it has been researched and studied. Paul Andrews is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior at McMaster University in Canada. He has also done research in the evolution of depression. Paul Andrews is an expert in the field of depression and antidepressant medication. This source was also analyzed by Anderson Thompson who also specializes in psychiatry. This was published in September 2012, but this research was compiled over the years. The information is up to date but recently others have challenged the harmful effects of antidepressants.