Depression

Depression is a mental health disorder where the sufferer exhibits symptoms such as feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and guilt, loss of interest in hobbies, decreased energy, difficulty concentrating, irritability, headaches, and chronic pain.

Scientists believe that depression is caused when there is a chemical imbalance of three major neurotransmitters (transmitters of electrical messages between brain cells) in the brain. These neurotransmitters are known as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Is this imbalance just a part of a person’s genes? Or does the balance of these chemicals change in response to what is happening in the outside world?

In Russia, testing was done on 177 male adolescents from a juvenile detention centre. They were each given structured diagnostic interview to diagnose depression, tested for the levels of neurotransmitters, and given a questionnaire to assess aspects of maternal parental rearing. The results of this test showed that neither nature nor nurture could solely be the cause of depression, and instead showed that the subjects with both a rejecting mother and a specific form of the dopamine transporter gene were at a higher risk of developing major depression.
Obviously there is a combination of psychological, biological and emotional factors that will affect the development of depression, but we still don’t fully understand the roles each of these play in the development, and to what extent they each will affect the development of depression.

Information From:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/od/depression/a/depression1.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080115102642.htm
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7725

Questions:
What roles do you think nature and nurture each play in depression?
To what extent do you think each nature and nurture affect the development of depression?
How do you think this will affect treatment of depression?