scholarly journals Ethiopathogenesis of Depressive Disorders

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Pasquini ◽  
I Berardelli ◽  
M Biondi

Etiology of depressive disorders is still unknown. Several factors are involved in its pathophysiology such as neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine alterations, genetics, life events and their appraisal. Some of these components are strictly linked. Subjects with a family member affected by mood disorders are more prone to suffer from depressive disorders. It is also true that receiving feedbacks of indifference or neglect during childhood from one parent who suffer from depression may represent a factor of vulnerability. Indeed, reaction to a specific negative event may determine an increased allostasis which lead to a depressive episode. Thus, a psychological cause does not exclude a neurobiological cascade. Whereas in other cases recurrent depressive episodes appear in absence of any negative life event. This review provides a set of data regarding the current etiopathogenesis models of depression, with a particular attention to the neurobiological correlates and vulnerability factors.

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Voorpostel ◽  
Tanja van der Lippe ◽  
Henk Flap

Using Dutch data ( N = 6630), this article examines how sibling relationships (including full biological, half- and adopted siblings) differed for persons who experienced a negative life event (divorce, physical illness, psychological problems, addiction, problems with the law, victimization of abuse or financial problems) and those who did not. Results showed that people who experienced serious negative life events in the past often had less active, less supportive and more strained sibling ties. The group that experienced a physical illness formed an exception, showing more supportive and active sibling ties, but also higher levels of conflict. Results suggest inequality between persons who have experienced negative life events and those who have not in terms of access to positive and supportive sibling relationships.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (9) ◽  
pp. 1801-1814 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wichers ◽  
H. H. Maes ◽  
N. Jacobs ◽  
C. Derom ◽  
E. Thiery ◽  
...  

BackgroundNegative life events are strongly associated with the development of depression. However, the etiologic relationship between life events and depression is complex. Evidence suggests that life events can cause depression, and depression increases the risk for life events. Additionally, third factors influencing both phenotypes may be involved. In this work we sought to disentangle these relationships using a genetically informative longitudinal design.MethodAdult female twins (n=536, including 281 twin pairs) were followed up for measurements of negative life event exposure and depressive symptoms. Four follow-ups were completed, each approximately 3 months apart. Model fitting was carried out using the Mx program.ResultsThe best-fitting model included causal paths from life events to depressive symptoms for genetic and shared environmental risk factors, whereas paths from depressive symptoms to life events were apparent for shared environmental factors. Shared latent influence on both phenotypes was found for individual-specific effects.ConclusionsLife events and depressive symptoms have complex inter-relationships that differ across sources of variance. The results of the model, if replicated, indicate that reducing life event exposure would reduce depressive symptoms and that lowering depressive symptoms would decrease the occurrence of negative life events.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Faust ◽  
Keith Feldman ◽  
Suwen Lin ◽  
Stephen Mattingly ◽  
Sidney D'Mello ◽  
...  

Negative life events, such as the death of a loved one, are an unavoidable part of life. These events can be overwhelmingly stressful and may lead to the development of mental health disorders. To mitigate these adverse developments, prior literature has utilized measures of psychological responses to negative life events to better understand their effects on mental health. However, psychological changes represent only one aspect of an individual's potential response. We posit measuring additional dimensions of health, such as physical health, may also be beneficial, as physical health itself may be affected by negative life events and measuring its response could provide context to changes in mental health. Therefore, the primary aim of this work was to quantify how an individual's physical health changes in response to negative life events by testing for deviations in their physiological and behavioral state (PB-state). After capturing post-event, PB-state responses, our second aim sought to contextualize changes within known factors of psychological response to negative life events, namely coping strategies. To do so, we utilized a cohort of professionals across the United States monitored for 1 year and who experienced a negative life event while under observation. Garmin Vivosmart-3 devices provided a multidimensional representation of one's PB-state by collecting measures of resting heart rate, physical activity, and sleep. To test for deviations in PB-state following negative life events, One-Class Support Vector Machines were trained on a window of time prior to the event, which established a PB-state baseline. The model then evaluated participant's PB-state on the day of the life event and each day that followed, assigning each day a level of deviance relative to the participant's baseline. Resulting response curves were then examined in association with the use of various coping strategies using Bayesian gamma-hurdle regression models. The results from our objectives suggest that physical determinants of health also deviate in response to negative life events and that these deviations can be mitigated through different coping strategies. Taken together, these observations stress the need to examine physical determinants of health alongside psychological determinants when investigating the effects of negative life events.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carta MG ◽  
Moro MF ◽  
Kovess V ◽  
Brasesco MV ◽  
Bhat KM ◽  
...  

Introduction: A recent survey put forward the hypothesis that the emigration that occurred from Sardinia from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, selected people with a hypomanic temperament. The paper aims to verify if the people who migrated from Sardinia in that period have shown a high risk of mood disorders in the surveys carried out in their host countries, and if the results are consistent with this hypothesis. Methods: This is systematic review. Results: In the 1970’s when examining the attitudes towards migration in Sardinian couples waiting to emigrate, Rudas found that the decision to emigrate was principally taken by males. Female showed lower self-esteem than male emigrants. A study on Sardinian immigrants in Argentina carried out in 2001-02, at the peak of the economic crisis, found a high risk of depressive disorders in women only. These results were opposite to the findings recorded ten years earlier in a survey on Sardinian immigrants in Paris, where the risk of Depressive Episode was higher in young men only. Discussion: Data point to a bipolar disorder risk for young (probably hypomanic) male migrants in competitive, challenging conditions; and a different kind of depressive episodes for women in trying economic conditions. The results of the survey on Sardinian migrants are partially in agreement with the hypothesis of a selective migration of people with a hypomanic temperament. Early motivations and self-esteem seem related to the ways mood disorders are expressed, and to the vulnerability to specific triggering situations in the host country.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle LeMoult ◽  
Katharina Kircanski ◽  
Gautam Prasad ◽  
Ian H. Gotlib

Most individuals who develop major depressive disorder (MDD) will experience a recurrent depressive episode; we know little, however, about cognitive mechanisms that increase the likelihood of recurrence. In the current study we examined whether negatively biased self-referential processing, negative life events, baseline depressive symptoms, and psychotropic medication use predicted the onset of a subsequent depressive episode in a longitudinal study of women with a history of recurrent MDD. Higher levels of depressive symptoms at baseline predicted experiencing a greater number of negative life events, which, in turn, tended to predict recurrence of depression. It is important that after accounting for other associations, negatively biased self-referential processing contributed unique variance to the likelihood of experiencing a depressive episode over the next 3 years. Thus, negatively biased self-referential processing appears to be a significant risk factor for the recurrence of depressive episodes and may be an important target for interventions aimed at preventing future episodes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Taylor-Clift ◽  
B. H. Morris ◽  
J. Rottenberg ◽  
M. Kovacs

BackgroundWhile anxiety has been associated with exaggerated emotional reactivity, depression has been associated with blunted, or context insensitive, emotional responding. Although anxiety and depressive disorders are frequently co-morbid, surprisingly little is known about emotional reactivity when the two disorders co-occur.MethodWe utilized the emotion-modulated startle (EMS) paradigm to examine the effects of a concurrent depressive episode on emotional reactivity in young adults with anxiety disorders. Using an archival dataset from a multi-disciplinary project on risk factors in childhood-onset depression, we examined eye-blink startle reactions to late-onset auditory startle probes while participants viewed pictures with affectively pleasant, unpleasant and neutral content. EMS response patterns were analyzed in 33 individuals with a current anxiety (but no depressive) disorder, 24 individuals with a current anxiety disorder and co-morbid depressive episode and 96 healthy controls.ResultsControl participants and those with a current anxiety disorder (but no depression) displayed normative linearity in startle responses, including potentiation by unpleasant pictures. By contrast, individuals with concurrent anxiety and depression displayed blunted EMS.ConclusionsAn anxiety disorder concurrent with a depressive episode is associated with reactivity that more closely resembles the pattern of emotional responding that is typical of depression (i.e. context insensitive) rather than the pattern that is typical for anxiety (i.e. exaggerated).


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marléne Voyer ◽  
Philippe Cappeliez

Activation of a depressogenic schema by a negative life event is said to be more likely when the life event corresponds to the same domain of vulnerability (congruency hypothesis). Specifically, this refers to a negative interpersonal event for the sociotropy/dependency schema, and an obstacle or a failure in achieving a goal for the autonomy/accomplishment or self-criticism schema. This study examines the congruency hypothesis for the prediction of relapse. Older patients were followed for 6 months after remission from major depression. Life events were rated as interpersonal or autonomous in nature. Their subjective impact on social relations and on autonomous functioning was also assessed. Congruency between dependency schema and interpersonal events, but only when the subjective impact of event was taken into consideration, predicted relapse. Non-congruency between an autonomous schema and an event rated as impacting the social domain also predicted relapse. However, in both analyses of dependency and autonomy schemas, impact of event on social relations on its own predicted relapse. These findings support the cognitive vulnerability theory of depressive relapse, underlining the importance of considering how the person views the influence of life events and the determining impact of stressful life events on social relations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Milutin Kostić ◽  
Olivera Vuković ◽  
Ana Munjiza ◽  
Danilo Pešić ◽  
Milica Vezmar ◽  
...  

No modern studies of the natural course of depression have been done since the nineteen fourties of the last century. A large number of depressive episodes spontaneously remit. Because of this, some psychiatrists call for more use of a therapeutic approach called watchful waiting, especially for milder forms of depression. At the Institute of mental health in Belgrade, from November 2019 until November 2021, a study in watchful waiting will be done. In this paper the methodology of the planned study is described.


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