THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYexperienced four or more of the following: significant weight gain or
loss; difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much; lethargy; feeling worthless
or guilty; indecisiveness or distractibility; physical slowing or agitation
(for example, pacing up and down); persistent thoughts of death or
suicide. Bereavement is the one caveat – if these symptoms appear after
loss of a loved one, then diagnosis of depression is made only if they
persist for more than two months.
The figures vary from one study to
another, but roughly speaking it’s estimated
that between four and ten percent of us
can expect to meet these criteria for major
depression at some point in our lifetimes.
Women are about twice as prone to the
illness as men – quite why remains some-
thing of a mystery.
Although it’s a “mental” illness, there’s
increasing recognition that depression is
also associated with poor physical health.
A 2007 study by the World Health Organization measured the health
of over two hundred thousand people across sixty countries and found
that depression was associated with poorer physical health than physical
conditions like angina and diabetes. Based on this, the study’s lead
author Saba Moussavi said that doctors should be taught not to ignore
the effect that depression can have on physical health.
WHAT CAUSES DEPRESSION?
Depression is usually triggered by what the formal jargon describes
rather unfeelingly as one or more significant life events such as bereave-
ment, divorce or redundancy. Indeed, in a classic study involving
interviews with 458 women in South London, the sociologist George
Brown and the psychologist Terri Harris found that of the 37 in their
sample who had experienced depression over the previous year, almost
90 percent had lived through a personal trauma. Exposure to neglect
or abuse in childhood can also increase a person’s risk of developing
depression later in life. An earlier bout of depression is yet a further risk-
factor – someone who’s had the illness once is left much more vulnerable
to experiencing it again.
While extreme strife can tip some people into a period of depression,
others are more resilient. Genetic factors probably play a role here,
“...there fell upon me
without any warning,
just as if it came out
of darkness, a horrible
fear of my own
existence.”
William James,
Varieties of Religious
Experience (1902)