Why is there depression?
Some evolutionary theories of depression:
- protection from neg outcomes
- physic pain (analogous to body pain)
- a way of changing one's own environment
- protection from infections
- focus cognitions
Symptoms:
- depressed mood of the day, nearly every day
- markedly diminished interest/pleasure in things
- significant weight loss or weight gin
- insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
- agitation
- fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
- diminished ability to think or concentrate
- recurrent thoughts of death (could be contemplating suicide)
- significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas
How common is it?
- past year prevalence of depression in adults is 10-17%
- adolescents with major depression are up to 30 times more likely to die of suicide
- in its severe form, it affects about 9% of adolescents
- second leading cause of years lived in disability
- 30-50% of the liability to depression is due to genetic factors
This is a graph showing the aetiology of depression:
- 40% of depressed young adults have had disruptive problems during development
- Negative bias and missing the positive in life affects a person's mood tremendously
--> this can be shown in the development of the brain
Depression Diagnosis:
- presence of manic systems
- underlying medical causes (e.g. anemia, thyroid disease)
- risk assessment!
Treatment:
- therapists may be beneficial
- about 60% of young people respond to an antidepressants
- about 50% also respond to placebo]
placebo: a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect
- anti depressants offer a good risk benefit ratio:
Numbers needed to treat (NNT): 10
Numbers needed to harm (NNH): 112
- women are more vulnerable to depression than men
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