what’s depression and why are so many people suffering from it, Is it really so bad or are they trying to make an excuse to skip their work?
In: Biology
Depression is a normal response to injury, illness, chronic emotional distress, or a hostile, stressful environment.
The purpose of the depression response is to keep you from taking excessive or impulsive risks when you’re in a weakened state For example if you have the flu, it’s a bad idea to go outside and chop wood in the rain. Indeed many of the symptoms of depression are the same as viral infections or traumatic injuries. There’s good evidence to suggest that the immune system and inflammation plays an important role in depression.
This is known as *Situational Depression.* Almost everyone has experienced it.
However, for some people this response is triggered for no obvious external reason, even if they’re healthy and have no major life conflict.
This is *Major Depression Disorder.*
It can sometimes be due to other mental health issues such as anxiety, schizophrenic disorders or developmental disorders, that causes chronic mental distress. The brain may respond to the distress of an overarching mental condition by dampening down such signals.
One interesting theory is that depression disorders may be a result complex immune response to certain bacteria in the gut.
Depression tends to be associated with a reduced level of certain key neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, phenylethylamine, GABA. Meanwhile there is an increase in others such as glutamic acid and adenosine.
The reasons why or pathways how this occurs are not well understood. I goes without saying that the brain is incredibly complex.
So, drugs used to treat depression work to artificially increase some of particularly serotonin. Some also work on dopamine and/or norepinephrine.
Caffeine is know to be modestly effective in treating depression and it blocks the action of adenosine.
Nicotine has a synergistic effect with acetylcholine, increasing it’s activity. Unfortunately, it has other characteristics such as a short period of action and rapid onset of withdrawal symptoms that make it very addictive. Many people with depression issues become addicted to tobacco products in attempts to find relief.
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