Date : 2013.11.25

Number : 1346011

Name : 서은지

The Reason Why We Have Depression

Depression is the most common mental disease among modern people. Depression is

defined as disease that brings the decline of life function due to low mood. Actually,

depression is so commonplace that it is being regarded as ‘the mental cold’. In addition, life

prevalence of depression is about 15%, and most people suffer from some symptoms of

depression in life. Then, why does the depression occur?

First, there are biochemical reasons. In a research using brain imaging technologies,

it is turned out that there are some brain changes in depressed patients. The substance in the

brain called ‘Serotonin’ is connected to the emotional function of brain, and acts as a catalyst

of endorphin. Therefore, the decline of serotonin brings about depression. The serotonin is

declined due to lack of exercise or vitamin D. In addition, a hormone imbalance also can be a

cause of depression.

Second, there are genetic reasons. Some researchers report that the person who has a

depressed patient in their family is more likely to suffer from depression. It is not always the

case that depression is inherited from parents, and even there is no absolute biological

evidence of heredity. However, 60% of the people who undergo the repetition of depression

have a depressed parent in their family. For the more scientific evidence, scientists are trying

to find a depressive gene which runs in family.

Finally, there are environmental reasons. These are the major and well-known factors

of depression. Indeed, most depressed patients suffered from depression because of the

surroundings. The examples of these factors are a sudden change in life, economic problem,

death of the family member, loneliness, etc. These factors which are all interconnected in our

social environment cause a high level of stress, and finally lead to depression.

Thus, there are many reasons that induce depression, not result from just stress as we

know. In other words, depression occurs when the biological, genetic and environmental

factors work synthetically. Therefore, if we understand these causes we can prevent the

depression.