  Affective: guilt and sadness, lack of enjoyment or pleasure in familiar activities or company.  Behavioural: passivity  Cognitive: negative thoughts, faulty attribution of blame, low self esteem, irrational hopelessness, difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness  Somatic: lack of energy, insomnia or hypersomnia, weight loss/gain, diminished libido. Symptoms of a Major Depressive Disorder

  When someone experiences two weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure.  Diagnosis requires at least 4 additional symptoms (such as insomnia, suicidal thoughts, passivity, or difficulty concentrating). Diagnosis of Depression

  Depression affects 15% of people at some time in their life (Charney and Weismann 1988).  Depression tends to be a recurrent disorder with about 80% experiencing a subsequent episode.  Depression is 2-3 times more common in women than in men.  It occurs frequently among members of lower socio- economic groups.  Levav (1997) found the prevalence rate to be above average in Jewish males suggesting that some groups are more prone to depression. Facts about Depression

  Prozac: blocks the reuptake of serotonin thereby leaving more serotonin in the synaptic gap/cleft.  Serotonin is known to affect mood, emotions, aggression, sleep and anxiety. Serotonin & Depression

  Another neurotransmitter called noradrenaline is found to be correlated with depression.  Janowsky et al. (1972)  Participants were given a drug called physostigmine (which lowers noradrenaline but increases acetylcholine).  They experienced feelings of self-hate and suicidal wishes within minutes. Noradrenaline & Depression

  Rampello et al. (2000) found depressed patients to have an imbalance of noradrenaline, serotonin, dopamine (pleasure), acetylcholine (memory).  Skeptics say that pinning depression to just neurotransmitters is too simple and reductionist (reducing complex behavior to a single factor). Cocktail of Neurotransmitters?

  Cortisol: a hormone that helps us cope with stress.  Cortisol hypothesis: Too much or too little cortisol levels may predispose an individual to depression.  Cushing’s syndrome: a disease which results in excessive production of cortisol.  There is a high prevalence of depression among people with Cushing’s syndrome. Stress & Depression

  Overproduction of cortisol may decrease the density of serotonin receptors and damage noradrenaline receptors.  However, people develop depression without being stressed and people who have experienced terrible stress do not always develop depression.

  Fernald and Gunnar (2008)  Surveyed 639 Mexican mothers and their children. Children of depressed mothers living in extreme poverty produced less cortisol.  This indicates a “worn out” stress system that leaves children susceptible to depression. Does poverty cause depression?

  Ellis (1962)  Proposed that irrational thinking causes depression, not the other way around. Cognition and Depression

  Beck (1976)  Observed that depressed patients’s thoughts are characterized by:  Overgeneralization based on negative events  Non-logical inference about oneself  Dichotomous thinking (black and white thinking)

  Identifies negative, self-critical thoughts  Notes the connection between negative thought and depression.  Examines each negative thought and decides whether it can be supported.  Replaces distorted negative thought with realistic interpretations of each situation. Beck’s theory of Cognitive Restructuring

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  1364 mothers across the US were studied and one child in the family were studied.  Interviews and observations were made during the child’s 1 st, 3 rd, and 5 th grade years. Buehler & O’Brien (2011)

  Full-time and part-time mothers reported fewer symptoms of depression than stay-at-moms.  Part-time moms were just as involved in their child’s schooling as stay-at-home moms and were actually more sensitive with their pre-school children than stay-at-home moms. Findings

  Depression is a result of genetic predisposition and severe life events such as:  Unemployment  Having more than 3 children under 14 at home  Absence of social support  Loss of mother at a young age  Having suffered child abuse Diathesis-stress Model

  Studied 458 women in London aged between 18 and 65 years.  Researchers used surveys and interviews on the women’s life and depressive episodes. Brown and Harris 1978

  In the previous year, 8% of the women had been depressed.  90% those who became depressed had recently experienced a severe life event.  Only 20% of women who had experienced severe difficulties became seriously depressed.  23% of working class women had been depressed within the past year compared to 3% of middle class women. Findings