What are the causes and risks of depression?

2 ANSWERS

1. manasa.chivakula
   

   The causes of depression
   The causes of depression are complex. Genetic, biological, and environmental factors can contribute to its development. In some people, depression can be traced to a single cause, while in others, a number of causes are at play. For many, the causes are never known.
   • Currently, it appears that there are biochemical causes for depression, occurring as a result of abnormalities in the levels of certain chemicals in the brain.
   o These chemicals are called neurotransmitters.
   o The abnormalities are thought to be biological and are not caused by anything you did.
   • While we still don't know exactly how levels of these neurotransmitters affect mood, we do know that the levels can be affected by a number of factors.
   o Heredity: Certain types of depression seem to run in some families. Research is ongoing as to exactly which genes are involved in depression. Just because someone in your family has depression, however, doesn't mean you will. Sometimes, family members who were known to abuse alcohol or other drugs were unwittingly trying to improve their mood (often called "self-medication" by professionals). Likewise, you can become depressed even if no one else in your family is known to have depression.
   o Personality: People with certain personality traits are more likely to become depressed. These include negative thinking, pessimism, excess worry, low self-esteem, a hypersensitivity to perceived rejection, overdependence on others, a sense of superiority or alienation from others, and ineffective responses to stress.
   o Situations: Difficult life events, loss, change, or persistent stress can cause levels of neurotransmitters to become unbalanced, leading to depression. Even events that tend to be major happy occasions, such as pregnancy and childbirth, can cause changes in hormone levels, be stressful and cause clinical depression, as in postpartum depression.
    

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2. Tom Reeds
   

   Depression can be described as a feeling of unhappy, sad, miserable or we can also call it as down in the dumps. Most of us feel in this way at one time or another for a short period of time. True depression is defined as a mood disorder which results in the feelings of sadness, loss, anger or frustration interfere with everyday life for some extended period of time. Most of the time depression runs in families. This might be due to the genes which are inherited, learned behavior or both. Although it is the genes that is likely to develop depression, a stressful or unhappy life event normally triggers the onset of a depressive phase.
   Depression might be bought by:
   Alcohol or drug Abuse
   Childhood events like abuse or neglect
   A Chronic Stress
   Death of a friend or relative
   Disappointment at home, work, or school
   Drugs such as sedatives and high blood pressure medications.
   Medical conditions such as hypothyroidism, cancer or hepatitis.
   Nutritional deficiencies
   Overly negative thoughts about one’s self and life, self blame and ineffective social problem solving skills.
   Prolonged pain or having a major illness.
   Sleeping problems
   Social Isolation which is common in elder people.
   In addition to all this, several clinical inventories or scales are used to assess a patient’s mental status and they can also determine the presence of symptoms of depressions.
    

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