Depression Causes

Depression Causes
Depression is the most commonly occurring psychological
disorder in the United States. In the US, it's estimated
that twenty percent of the population is depressed. Taken
as an actual number, that twenty percent affliction rate
amounts to roughly sixty million people. It's also worth
noting that most depressed people in the United States
don't get professionally diagnosed or treated. Given how
widespread depression seems to be, the question of what
actually causes depression is an important one.

There are essentially two reasons for depression:
biological factors and environmental interactive factors.
There's also of course a combination of biological and
environmental factors. When discussing biological causes of
depression, essentially what's being referenced is a
chemical imbalance in the brain. There are different
chemicals at work in the brain, operating in complex
functions. Lower levels than normal of certain chemicals in
the brain are associated with various psychological and
behavioral problems, including depression.

One of the chemicals believed to have a primary function in
the regulation of mood is serotonin. Low serotonin levels
have been associated not only with depression but with
obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, sleep difficulties,
and anger and aggression abnormalities. The discovery of
serotonin in the role of mood was key in the development of
the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class of drugs,
also known as SSRI's. Of the SSRI's, and there are now a
number available, Prozac was the first on the market and is
still the most well known. Prozac in fact is one of the
most widely prescribed pharmaceuticals in history, a
testament to the prevalence of depression and emotional
malaise.

The other side of the coin in the thinking on depression
causes is that depression is purely a function of
environmental interactive factors. That is to say,
depression isn't caused by any biological imbalance at all
but instead occurs because of how a person responds to
their environment. For example, a person may perceive a
relationship break up as a major loss and therefore go into
a depression. From an environmental interactive position
the thinking would be that this particular depression isn't
due to some brain dysfunction but is instead caused by the
significance this person attaches to a life event: in this
case, the break up of a relationship. Using this sort of
explanation, all forms of depression can be explained by a
person's perspective as opposed to any biological factors.

So is depression caused by biology or by how a person
perceives their environment? The answer is likely a
combination of both. The effectiveness of drugs like Prozac
demonstrate that there is a biological element to
depression, but there's certainly also issues of
perspective at work as well.

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Zinn Jeremiah is a freelance author. For depression help,
visit http://www.hubonline.biz/healthy-mood.htm or
http://www.hubonline.biz/get-better-now.htm .