Number 1 Cause Of Depression

Depression A Leading Contributor To Global Burden Of Disease

Although mental health is a sensitive topic the world over, the prevalence of mental illness and its consequences can no longer be overlooked. While mental disorders include a range of illnesses , depression is the most common and is pervasive worldwide.

Depression is now the fourth-leading cause of the global disease burden and the leading cause of disability worldwide.1 While it is not a significant cause of mortality, depression seriously reduces the quality of life for individuals and their families, is a risk factor for suicide, and often worsens the outcome of other physical health problems.

Unfortunately, depression is particularly problematic in developing countries, where data on the prevalence and scope of the disease as well as the resources to address it are sorely lacking. Cost-effective interventions are available, but do not often reach those who need them because of a number of overwhelming challenges in low-resource settingslack of facilities and trained mental health personnel, questions about effective population-based screening, and the general stigma surrounding mental disorders. .

Mental Health Workers, Low-Income and High-Income Countries

Median per 100,000 population

Source: WHO, Mental Health Atlas 2005 .

Life Events And Depression

Research suggests that continuing difficulties, such as long-term unemployment, living in an abusive or uncaring relationship, long-term isolation or loneliness or prolonged exposure to stress at work can increase the risk of depression.

Significant adverse life events, such as losing a job, going through a separation or divorce, or being diagnosed with a serious illness, may also trigger depression, particularly among people who are already at risk because of genetic, developmental or other personal factors.

Beyond Treatment: Things You Can Do

Once you begin treatment, you should gradually start to feel better. Here are other tips that may help you or a loved one during treatment for depression:

• Try to get some physical activity. Just 30 minutes a day of walking can boost mood.
• Try to maintain a regular bedtime and wake-up time.
• Eat regular, healthy meals.
• Do what you can as you can. Decide what must get done and what can wait.
• Try to connect with other people, and talk with people you trust about how you are feeling.
• Postpone important decisions, such as getting married or divorced, or changing jobs until you feel better.
• Avoid using alcohol, nicotine, or drugs, including medications not prescribed for you.

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What Is Major Depressive Disorder

Major depressive disorder is a serious mental illness that affects how people feel, think, and go about their everyday tasks. The condition can also impact a persons sleep habits, appetite, and ability to enjoy life.

Major depressive disorder isnt something that eventually passes.

What Is The Role Of Inflammation In Depression

There is growing evidence that depression gives rise to inflammation and the inflammatory response creates or exacerbates depression. Neuroscientists know that there is lots of crosstalk in the brain between neural circuits and inflammatory pathways. Negative thoughts are a source of psychological pain.

Like all signs of injury, pain mobilizes various immune cells to help subdue the source, and that mobilization creates inflammation. Stress is known to activate an inflammatory response. The presence of inflammatory cells in the brain may be one reason many drug treatments for depression fail they do not target inflammation.

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Can Depression Be Prevented

You can help prevent depression by getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet and practicing regular self-care activities such as exercise, meditation and yoga.

If youve had depression before, you may be more likely to experience it again. If you have depression symptoms, get help. Care can help you feel better sooner.

What Are The Symptoms Of Depression

Depression can affect your emotions, mind and body. Depression symptoms include:

• Feeling very sad, hopeless or worried.
• Not enjoying things that used to give you joy.
• Being easily irritated or frustrated.
• Eating too much or too little.
• Changes in how much you sleep.
• Having a difficult time concentrating or remembering things.
• Experiencing physical problems like headache, stomachache or sexual dysfunction.
• Thinking about hurting or killing yourself.

If you or someone you know has thoughts of hurting themselves, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800.273.8255. This national network of local crisis centers provides free, private emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Changes After Giving Birth

After having a baby, it’s common for new moms to experience feelings of sadness and anxiety this emotional response is often referred to as the baby blues. But in more serious cases, these feelings last longer than a few days and may be a form of depression called postpartum depression.

Studies estimate that postpartum depression affects 10%15% of new mothers, but Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD, a psychologist and lactation consultant who specializes in postpartum depression, previously told Health it may actually be as high as 25%.

How Is Depression Syndrome Diagnosed

Everyone may feel sad or down from time to time. However, clinical depression has more intense symptoms that last two weeks or longer.

To determine whether you have clinical depression, your healthcare provider will ask questions. You may complete a questionnaire and provide a family history. Your healthcare provider may also perform an exam or order lab tests to see if you have another medical condition.

Also Check: How To Know If I Have Severe Depression

How Can I Help Someone With Depression

Helping someone with depression might not look a single way. However, things that you can do to help include encouraging treatment, listening with compassion, helping the person suffering with daily tasks, be vigilant for signs of suicidal behavior, and to make sure you are caring for yourself, too.

Is Depression Caused By A Chemical Imbalance

The human brain is extremely complicated. Because antidepressants work by changing brain chemistry, some people have assumed that depression is caused by changes in brain chemistry which are then ‘corrected’ by the drugs. Some doctors may tell you that you have a ‘chemical imbalance’ and need medication to correct it.

But the evidence for this is very weak, and if changes to brain chemistry occur, we don’t know whether these are the result of the depression or its cause.

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How Is Depression Syndrome Treated

Depression can be serious, but its also treatable. Treatment for depression includes:

• Self-help: Regular exercise, getting enough sleep, and spending time with people you care about can improve depression symptoms.
• Counseling: Counseling or psychotherapy is talking with a mental health professional. Your counselor helps you address your problems and develop coping skills. Sometimes brief therapy is all you need. Other people continue therapy longer.
• Alternative medicine: People with mild depression or ongoing symptoms can improve their well-being with complementary therapy. Therapy may include massage, acupuncture, hypnosis and biofeedback.
• Medication: Prescription medicine called antidepressants can help change brain chemistry that causes depression. Antidepressants can take a few weeks to have an effect. Some antidepressants have side effects, which often improve with time. If they dont, talk to your provider. A different medications may work better for you.
• Brain stimulation therapy: Brain stimulation therapy can help people who have severe depression or depression with psychosis. Types of brain stimulation therapy include electroconvulsive therapy , transcranial magnetic stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation .

Live By The Serenity Prayer

Some recovery groups use this version:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,Courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference.

This powerful prayer, written by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, echoes the same idea expressed above making peace with what we cannot change and focusing on what we can.

I recently read Gary Mendells story in USA Today. His son, Brian, died after a prolonged battle with opioid addiction. Brian had been through eight treatment programs. He was 25 when he died and had not used in over a year.

Gary stated that the only thing that kept him alive in the weeks following Brians death was the Serenity Prayer. He meditated on the first line, God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. He knew that Brian had been a good person battling a terrible disease. He also knew that Brians battle was over and there was nothing more he could do to help his son.

And then he started thinking about the second line, Give me courage to change the things I can. Gary decided to form a nonprofit program to help other families battling addiction: Shatterproof. Shatterproof has three core objectives: 1) to reduce the number of new people affected by this addiction, 2) to develop a research-based consumer guide for the best treatment, and 3) to change the American mindset about addiction, to start thinking about it as a disease rather than a character flaw.

Epictetus also wrote the following:

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How Does Loneliness Lead To Depression

Loneliness assaults the body and mind in multiple ways. By itself, it is felt as a major stress, and is linked to the release of stress hormones, which are known to impair such brain operations as learning and memory retrieval. Whats more, loneliness magnifies the perception of all other stresses. It diminishes functioning of the immune system and readily leads to inflammation, a known pathway to depression.

The emotional discomfort of loneliness makes us feel sad, and sadness saps our energy and slows functioning of all body systems. Companionship is such a powerful buffer to all human difficulty that loneliness is said to have even more of a detrimental effect on health than cigarette smoking.

Formidable Obstacles To Mental Health Care

Challenges to addressing depression at a clinical and community level in less developed countries are numerous and vastranging from inadequate funding and personnel for diagnosis and treatment to stigma and the simple lack of understanding that mental illness is, in fact, a distinct medical condition.

Stigma

The stigma of mental illness is perhaps the biggest challenge to confronting depression in developing countries. Stigma facilitates a lack of awareness of the condition as an illness category and causes many people to delay seeking care.15 It is a strong contributor to underreporting of the disease and a barrier to using the available cost-effective interventions.

Lack of Treatment Access and Recognition of the Disease

Treatment for depression is often lacking, especially in developing countries: The World Health Organization reports that fewer than one in every four people affected by depression worldwide have access to effective treatments.16 Adding to the problem is that people with depression who seek help most often complain of nonspecific physical symptoms such individuals receive a correct diagnosis in less than one-quarter of cases and typically are treated with medicines of doubtful efficacy.17

Lack of Trained Mental Health Personnel

Culturally Appropriate Screening

Integration of Mental Health Care in Primary Health Care, by Income Group

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What Is The Number One Cause Of Depression

There are many causes of depression, and they all have to do with your genetics. While your genes do play a role, your environment does as well. There are also several lifestyle factors that contribute to depression, some of which are hard to change. However, there are certain triggers that can make you more susceptible to the disease, such as being a loner. A seasonal pattern in depression is a common cause.

Psychotherapy is just as common as the weather these days. Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy, can be a great way to help you get through a rough time. When combined with medication, psychotherapy can reduce the duration of your depression. If you cant take medication, psychotherapy may be the only option. But if you cant take the drugs, this could make your depression worse.

Some people suffer from depression due to a combination of factors. A stressful life event such as losing a loved one can lead to depression. Other times, physical pain or illness can trigger a bout of depressive feelings. Getting to the end of a TV show or movie can also trigger a depressive episode. Harry Potter and Avatar fans experienced a sense of loss and sadness when their beloved shows and movies ended in 2009. The same applies to major projects and experiences.

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Antenatal And Postnatal Depression

Women are at an increased risk of depression during pregnancy and in the year following childbirth . This time frame may also be referred to as the perinatal period.

The causes of depression at this time can be complex and are often the result of a combination of factors. In the days immediately following birth, many women experience the baby blues, which is a common condition related to hormonal changes, affecting up to 80 per cent of women who have given birth.

The baby blues, or the general stress of adjusting to pregnancy or a new baby, are common experiences, but are different from depression.

Depression is longer lasting and can affect not only the mother, but her relationship with her baby, the childs development, the mothers relationship with her partner and with other members of the family.

Up to one in 10 women will experience depression during pregnancy. This increases to 16 per cent in the first three months after having a baby.

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What Causes Work Anxiety

There are so many aspects a job that can cause anxiety: having tight deadlines, trying to harmonize a work/life balance, dealing with office gossip and politics, meeting your supervisors expectations the list goes on. Thanks to all this, most people who work will experience some anxiety at some point.

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The #1 Cause Of Depression According To Science

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2019 National Health Interview Survey, 4.7 percent of adults over the age of 18 experience regular feelings of depression, with about 1 out of every 6 adults will have depression at some time in their life. While everyone experiences sadness on occasion, how is depression different, who is most likely to get it and what is the number one cause? Read on to learn everything you need to know about depressionand to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had COVID.

1 What Is Depression?

, board-certified psychiatrist and chief medical officer for Myriad Mental Health, maker of the GeneSight test explains that depression is a treatable, but serious mental health condition. “It is characterized by feelings of sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, negativity, sleep and appetite disturbances, difficulty concentrating and other symptoms lasting longer than two weeks,” he tells Eat This, Not That!

2 What Happens If You Have Depression

Depression impacts everyone differently and can manifest itself in various ways. The CDC offers several symptoms associated with it.

3 How Do I Know If I Am Depressed?

Dr. Pollack explains that while there is no blood test for depression, there are screening tools that doctors can use to evaluate whether a person is exhibiting the symptoms of major depressive disorder.

7 What Should You Do If You Notice Depression Symptoms in Yourself or Others

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Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is a condition that occurs in children and youth ages 6 to 18. It involves a chronic and severe irritability resulting in severe and frequent temper outbursts. The temper outbursts can be verbal or can involve behavior such as physical aggression toward people or property. These outbursts are significantly out of proportion to the situation and are not consistent with the childs developmental age. They must occur frequently and typically in response to frustration. In between the outbursts, the childs mood is persistently irritable or angry most of the day, nearly every day. This mood is noticeable by others, such as parents, teachers, and peers.

In order for a diagnosis of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder to be made, symptoms must be present for at least one year in at least two settings and the condition must begin before age 10. Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is much more common in males than females. It may occur along with other disorders, including major depressive, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, anxiety, and conduct disorders.

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder can have a significant impact on the childs ability to function and a significant impact on the family. Chronic, severe irritability and temper outbursts can disrupt family life, make it difficult for the child/youth to make or keep friendships, and cause difficulties at school.

Treatment typically involves and/or medications.