Causes's archives

At the Institute we believe that personality and temperament contribute to certain depressive disorders, particularly the non-melancholic disorders. Certain personality types are more at risk of depression than others. Our research has highlighted the contribution of: High levels of anxiety, which can be experienced as an internalized ‘Anxious Worrying’ style or as a more externalized ‘Irritability’ Shyness, expressed as ‘Social Avoidance’ and/or ‘Personal Reserve’ Self-criticism or low self-worth Interpersonal sensitivity Perfectionism A ‘self-focused’ personality style.

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It is important to recognise that nearly every individual can be stressed and depressed by certain events. Most people experience a rapid ‘spontaneous’ resolution within days or weeks. Some do not – so that the depression persists – with the ‘stress’ either maintaining the process or having initiated processes that will not simply be resolved by ‘the passage of time’.

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Gender is a partial, but incomplete, explanation of why a person develops a mood disorder. Essentially equal numbers of men and women develop melancholic depression and Bipolar Disorder. However, studies have shown that there is a much greater likelihood of women developing non-melancholic depression than men. There are a number of explanations for this.

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As we age, our brain’s capacity (in terms of general functioning) reduces, while certain neurotransmitters (which influence mood state) can become perturbed. Three reasons for these changes are worth mentioning in relation to depression. Some elderly people who are developing a dementia may at some stage (often early on) develop a severe depression for the first time. The depression is commonly of a psychotic or melancholic type and reflects disruption of circuits linking certain basal ganglia and frontal regions of the brain. Sometimes these changes merely reflect an aging process, particularly in people who are vulnerable to this kind of ‘wear and tear’. In others, however, high blood pressure or mini-strokes (often unnoticed by the individual and their family) may contribute. Good blood pressure control […]

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We all know that being ill is not a pleasant experience. Even short periods of illness can lower our mood, as the effects of pain and discomfort, or of confinement and a reduced capacity to do the things we enjoy, take their toll. In that sense, illness can lead to depression. These issues are explored in Depression in the medically ill.

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Our knowledge of the human brain is still fairly limited, therefore we do not really know what actually happens in the brain to cause depression. It’s likely that with most instances of clinical depression, neurotransmitter function is disrupted. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry signals from one part of the brain to the next. There are many neurotransmitters, serving different purposes, however three important ones that affect a person’s mood are serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine.

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While depression is popularly considered to be due to life experiences and/or personality factors, there is in fact, strong evidence for significant genetic predisposition towards developing depression. Studies of twins have confirmed that depression can be inherited. The genetic risk of developing clinical depression is about 40%, with the remaining 60% being due to factors in the individual’s own environment. Depression is unlikely to occur without life events, but the risk of developing depression as a result of some such event is strongly genetically determined. It is unlikely that any one contributing gene will be identified. While the genetic risk to depression is now being clarified, the specific genes and traits inherited are yet to be identified. It may be that some of the genetic […]

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While researchers often talk about ‘finding the cause’ of some disease or disorder this often obscures the fact that only part of the story is known. Some causes are pretty straightforward. We know that a broken leg is usually the result of some kind of pressure or strain being applied. Moreover, if you have a broken leg you typically know when it happened (leg was fine yesterday, today it is broken) and how it happened (this morning you went skiing).

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