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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.
Zinn Jeremiah is a freelance author. For help with depression, visit depression treatment or help depression.
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