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What does research say about the psychology of depression?
Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, and stressful life events. The monoamine-deficiency theory posits that the underlying pathophysiological basis of depression is a depletion of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine in the central nervous system. Serotonin is the most extensively studied neurotransmitter in depression. In the largest-ever study of depression and inflammation, published in 2021 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, scientists confirmed the link between the two. They found people with depression had more inflammation than those without the mental health disorder. It is characterized by persistent sadness and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously rewarding or enjoyable activities. It can also disturb sleep and appetite. Tiredness and poor concentration are common.
Why is research about depression important?
The study of depression focuses on neuroscience, reflecting the essential characteristics of depression as a category of mental illness and better reflecting the fact that depression is an important link in the human public health care. The main subcortical limbic brain regions implicated in depression are the amygdala, hippocampus, and the dorsomedial thalamus. Both structural and functional abnormalities in these areas have been found in depression. There’s no single cause of depression. It can occur for a variety of reasons and it has many different triggers. For some people, an upsetting or stressful life event, such as bereavement, divorce, illness, redundancy and job or money worries, can be the cause. Different causes can often combine to trigger depression. Medications and psychotherapy are effective for most people with depression. Your primary care doctor or psychiatrist can prescribe medications to relieve symptoms. However, many people with depression also benefit from seeing a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health professional.
What psychological theory explains depression?
According to Seligman’s learned helplessness theory, depression occurs when a person learns that their attempts to escape negative situations make no difference. As a consequence they become passive and will endure aversive stimuli or environments even when escape is possible. The attributional reformulation of the learned helplessness model (Abramson et al., 1978) and Beck’s cognitive theory (Beck et al., 1979) are the two most widely-accepted cognitive theories among contemporary cognitive models of depression (Vázquez et al., 2000). Cognitive Distortions and Mental Health Our feelings follow what we are thinking, and negative thoughts like these can ultimately contribute to symptoms of depression. Stressful life events: Difficult experiences, such as the death of a loved one, trauma, divorce, isolation and lack of support, can trigger depression. Medical conditions: Chronic pain and chronic conditions like diabetes can lead to depression. Medication: Some medications can cause depression as a side effect. According to an fMRI study, decreased brain activity in the hippocampus was reported82 in depressive patients. Reduced gray matter volume and reduced functional activity in the hippocampus would lead to negative emotion and the inability of cognitive processing in depressive patients.
What is the conclusion of depression?
CONCLUSIONS. Depression occurs commonly, causing suffering, functional impairment, increased risk of suicide, added health care costs, and productivity losses. Effective treatments are available both when depression occurs alone and when it co-occurs with general medical illnesses. Sleep, diet and exercise. A poor diet and lack of sleep and exercise can affect your mood, and make it harder for you to cope with difficult things going on in your life. Although a poor diet, or not getting enough sleep or exercise, cannot directly cause depression, they can make you more vulnerable to developing it. Having a strong support system and an active social life is important for our mental health. Research has shown that having even “adequate” social support can protect against depression. Make sure that you’re regularly connecting with friends and family, even when your lives are busy. People with clinical depression often have increased levels of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme that breaks down key neurotransmitters, resulting in very low levels of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine.
What is a good research question about depression?
For instance, how does an imbalance in brain chemistry or poor nutrition relate to depression? Is there a relationship between the stressful, busier lives of today’s society and the rise of depression? How can grief or a major medical condition lead to overwhelming sadness and depression? Socially stressful and traumatic life events, limited access to resources such as food, housing, and health care, and a lack of social support all contribute to depression risk. A depression not only makes a person feel sad and dejected – it can also damage the brain permanently, so the person has difficulties remembering and concentrating once the disease is over. Up to 20 percent of depression patients never make a full recovery. “Depression often gives people the time and desire to reflect more deeply about their lives and life path, providing them an opportunity to make some positive changes in their lives,” Plante adds. “Hopefully, they’ll find a way to make important changes in their lives that will serve them better over time.” There’s no cure for depression, but there are lots of effective treatments. People can recover from depression and live long and healthy lives. You may be diagnosed with mild, moderate or severe depression. Your mental health professional may diagnose you with depression if these symptoms: happen most days.
How does depression affect human behavior?
Depression affects your mood, thoughts, feelings, behaviors and physical health. Severe depression can result in losing the ability to feel pleasure in the things you once enjoyed. It can also cause you to withdraw from your social relationships even from people to whom you are closest. Depression, especially when it goes untreated, can actually change the brain, making episodes worse or more frequent. It also impacts the body and physical health, causing fatigue, digestive issues, pain, and other complications related to the poor decisions made when in a depressed mood. However, there is also a lot of research that shows that depression actively leads to a detrimental development of the frontal lobe, ultimately affecting your intelligence and lowering your IQ because you’re simply too depressed to think straight, or can’t complete certain cognitive tasks anymore. Although neurologists don’t treat mental health conditions like depression, it’s important to talk to them about your mental health. If you’ve been diagnosed with a mental health condition, let your neurologist know. It could be causing symptoms that are similar to neurological conditions.
What is the leading theory of depression?
That is, the hopelessness theory predicts that the interaction between negative cognitive styles and negative life events engenders a sense of hopelessness. This hopelessness, in turn, was hypothesized to be sufficient by itself to bring about depression. Depression creates a sensation of isolation as if you are lost in the wilderness with no direction. The final stage is acceptance, which means you have finally made peace with the reality of your mental illness. Depression results from a complex interaction of social, psychological, and biological factors. People who have gone through adverse life events (unemployment, bereavement, traumatic events) are more likely to develop depression. There’s growing evidence that several parts of the brain shrink in people with depression. Specifically, these areas lose gray matter volume (GMV). That’s tissue with a lot of brain cells. GMV loss seems to be higher in people who have regular or ongoing depression with serious symptoms. It is characterized by persistent sadness and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously rewarding or enjoyable activities. It can also disturb sleep and appetite. Tiredness and poor concentration are common. “Depressed mood” and “loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities” are core features of a major depressive episode, though a strong case can be made to pay increasing attention to symptoms of fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and neurocognitive and sexual dysfunction in the diagnosis and evaluation of …