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What was the Great Depression?

What were the causes of the great depression, how did the great depression affect the american economy, how did the united states and other countries recover from the great depression, when did the great depression end.

Great Depression

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• Table Of Contents

The Great Depression, which began in the United States in 1929 and spread worldwide, was the longest and most severe economic downturn in modern history. It was marked by steep declines in industrial production and in prices (deflation), mass unemployment , banking panics, and sharp increases in rates of poverty and homelessness.

Four factors played roles of varying importance. (1) The stock market crash of 1929 shattered confidence in the American economy, resulting in sharp reductions in spending and investment. (2) Banking panics in the early 1930s caused many banks to fail, decreasing the pool of money available for loans. (3) The gold standard required foreign central banks to raise interest rates to counteract trade imbalances with the United States, depressing spending and investment in those countries. (4) The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930) imposed steep tariffs on many industrial and agricultural goods, inviting retaliatory measures that ultimately reduced output and caused global trade to contract.

In the United States, where the Depression was generally worst, industrial production between 1929 and 1933 fell by nearly 47 percent, gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 30 percent, and unemployment reached more than 20 percent. Because of banking panics, 20 percent of banks in existence in 1930 had failed by 1933.

Three factors played roles of varying importance. (1) Abandonment of the gold standard and currency devaluation enabled some countries to increase their money supplies, which spurred spending, lending, and investment. (2) Fiscal expansion in the form of increased government spending on jobs and other social welfare programs , notably the New Deal in the United States, arguably stimulated production by increasing aggregate demand. (3) In the United States, greatly increased military spending in the years before the country’s entry into World War II helped to reduce unemployment to below its pre-Depression level by 1942, again increasing aggregate demand.

In most affected countries, the Great Depression was technically over by 1933, meaning that by then their economies had started to recover. Most did not experience full recovery until the late 1930s or early 1940s, however. The United States is generally thought to have fully recovered from the Great Depression by about 1939.

Great Depression , worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world, sparking fundamental changes in economic institutions, macroeconomic policy, and economic theory. Although it originated in the United States , the Great Depression caused drastic declines in output, severe unemployment , and acute deflation in almost every country of the world. Its social and cultural effects were no less staggering, especially in the United States, where the Great Depression represented the harshest adversity faced by Americans since the Civil War .

Economic history

The timing and severity of the Great Depression varied substantially across countries. The Depression was particularly long and severe in the United States and Europe ; it was milder in Japan and much of Latin America. Perhaps not surprisingly, the worst depression ever experienced by the world economy stemmed from a multitude of causes. Declines in consumer demand , financial panics , and misguided government policies caused economic output to fall in the United States, while the gold standard , which linked nearly all the countries of the world in a network of fixed currency exchange rates , played a key role in transmitting the American downturn to other countries. The recovery from the Great Depression was spurred largely by the abandonment of the gold standard and the ensuing monetary expansion. The economic impact of the Great Depression was enormous, including both extreme human suffering and profound changes in economic policy .

The Great Depression began in the United States as an ordinary recession in the summer of 1929. The downturn became markedly worse, however, in late 1929 and continued until early 1933. Real output and prices fell precipitously. Between the peak and the trough of the downturn, industrial production in the United States declined 47 percent and real gross domestic product (GDP) fell 30 percent. The wholesale price index declined 33 percent (such declines in the price level are referred to as deflation ). Although there is some debate about the reliability of the statistics, it is widely agreed that the unemployment rate exceeded 20 percent at its highest point. The severity of the Great Depression in the United States becomes especially clear when it is compared with America’s next worst recession, the Great Recession of 2007–09, during which the country’s real GDP declined just 4.3 percent and the unemployment rate peaked at less than 10 percent.

The Depression affected virtually every country of the world. However, the dates and magnitude of the downturn varied substantially across countries. Great Britain struggled with low growth and recession during most of the second half of the 1920s. The country did not slip into severe depression, however, until early 1930, and its peak-to-trough decline in industrial production was roughly one-third that of the United States. France also experienced a relatively short downturn in the early 1930s. The French recovery in 1932 and 1933, however, was short-lived. French industrial production and prices both fell substantially between 1933 and 1936. Germany ’s economy slipped into a downturn early in 1928 and then stabilized before turning down again in the third quarter of 1929. The decline in German industrial production was roughly equal to that in the United States. A number of countries in Latin America fell into depression in late 1928 and early 1929, slightly before the U.S. decline in output. While some less-developed countries experienced severe depressions, others, such as Argentina and Brazil , experienced comparatively mild downturns. Japan also experienced a mild depression, which began relatively late and ended relatively early.

The general price deflation evident in the United States was also present in other countries. Virtually every industrialized country endured declines in wholesale prices of 30 percent or more between 1929 and 1933. Because of the greater flexibility of the Japanese price structure, deflation in Japan was unusually rapid in 1930 and 1931. This rapid deflation may have helped to keep the decline in Japanese production relatively mild. The prices of primary commodities traded in world markets declined even more dramatically during this period. For example, the prices of coffee, cotton, silk, and rubber were reduced by roughly half just between September 1929 and December 1930. As a result, the terms of trade declined precipitously for producers of primary commodities .

The U.S. recovery began in the spring of 1933. Output grew rapidly in the mid-1930s: real GDP rose at an average rate of 9 percent per year between 1933 and 1937. Output had fallen so deeply in the early years of the 1930s, however, that it remained substantially below its long-run trend path throughout this period. In 1937–38 the United States suffered another severe downturn, but after mid-1938 the American economy grew even more rapidly than in the mid-1930s. The country’s output finally returned to its long-run trend path in 1942.

Recovery in the rest of the world varied greatly. The British economy stopped declining soon after Great Britain abandoned the gold standard in September 1931, although genuine recovery did not begin until the end of 1932. The economies of a number of Latin American countries began to strengthen in late 1931 and early 1932. Germany and Japan both began to recover in the fall of 1932. Canada and many smaller European countries started to revive at about the same time as the United States, early in 1933. On the other hand, France, which experienced severe depression later than most countries, did not firmly enter the recovery phase until 1938.

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Evolution and Emerging Trends in Depression Research From 2004 to 2019: A Literature Visualization Analysis

1 School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Xuemei Tian

2 School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Xianrui Wang

Associated data.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Depression has become a major threat to human health, and researchers around the world are actively engaged in research on depression. In order to promote closer research, the study of the global depression knowledge map is significant. This study aims to map the knowledge map of depression research and show the current research distribution, hotspots, frontiers, and trends in the field of depression research, providing researchers with worthwhile information and ideas. Based on the Web of Science core collection of depression research from 2004 to 2019, this study systematically analyzed the country, journal, category, author, institution, cited article, and keyword aspects using bibliometric and data visualization methods. A relationship network of depression research was established, highlighting the highly influential countries, journals, categories, authors, institutions, cited articles, and keywords in this research field. The study identifies great research potential in the field of depression, provides scientific guidance for researchers to find potential collaborations through collaboration networks and coexistence networks, and systematically and accurately presents the hotspots, frontiers, and shortcomings of depression research through the knowledge map of global research on depression with the help of information analysis and fusion methods, which provides valuable information for researchers and institutions to determine meaningful research directions.

Introduction

Health issues are becoming more and more important to people due to the continuous development of health care. The social pressures on people are becoming more and more pronounced in a social environment that is developing at an increasing rate. Prolonged exposure to stress can have a negative impact on brain development ( 1 ), and depression is one of the more typical disorders that accompany it. Stress will increase the incidence of depression ( 2 ), depression has become a common disease ( 3 ), endangering people's physical health. Depression is a debilitating mental illness with mood disorders, also known as major depression, clinical depression, or melancholia. In human studies of the disease, it has been found that depression accounts for a large proportion of the affected population. According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics in 2019, there are more than 350 million people with depression worldwide, with an increase of about 18% in the last decade and an estimated lifetime prevalence of 15% ( 4 ), it is a major cause of global disability and disease burden ( 5 ), and depression has quietly become a disease that threatens hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Along with the rise of science communication research, the quantification of science is also flourishing. As a combination of “data science” and modern science, bibliometrics takes advantage of the explosive growth of research output in the era of big data, and uses topics, authors, publications, keywords, references, citations, etc. as research targets to reveal the current status and impact of the discipline more accurately and scientifically. Whereas, there is not a wealth of bibliometric studies related to depression. Fusar-Poli et al. ( 6 ) used bibliometrics to systematically evaluate cross-diagnostic psychiatry. Hammarström et al. ( 7 ) used bibliometrics to analyze the scientific quality of gender-related explanatory models of depression in the medical database PubMed. Tran et al. ( 8 ) used the bibliometric analysis of research progress and effective interventions for depression in AIDS patients. Wang et al. ( 9 ) used bibliometric methods to analyze scientific studies on the comorbidity of pain and depression. Shi et al. ( 10 ) performed a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 cited articles on biomarkers in the field of depression. Dongping et al. ( 11 ) used bibliometric analysis of studies on the association between depression and gut flora. An Chunping et al. ( 12 ) analyzed the literature on acupuncture for depression included in PubMed based on bibliometrics. Yi and Xiaoli ( 13 ) used a bibliometric method to analyze the characteristics of the literature on the treatment of depression by Chinese medicine in the last 10 years. Zhou and Yan ( 14 ) used bibliometric method to analyze the distribution of scientific and technological achievements on depression in Peoples R China. Guaijuan ( 15 ) performed a bibliometric analysis of the interrelationship between psoriasis and depression. Econometric analysis of the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and depression was performed by Yunzhi et al. ( 16 ) and Shauni et al. ( 17 ) performed a bibliometric analysis of domestic and international research papers on depression-related genes from 2003 to 2007. A previous review of depression-related bibliometric studies revealed that there is no bibliometric analysis of global studies in the field of depression, including country network analysis, journal network analysis, category network analysis, author network analysis, institutional network analysis, literature co-citation analysis, keyword co-presentation analysis, and cluster analysis.

The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive and systematic literature-based data mining and metrics analysis of depression-related research. More specifically, this analysis focuses on cooperative network and co-presentation analysis, based on the 36,477 papers included in the Web of Science Core Collection database from 2004 to 2019, and provides an in-depth analysis of cooperative network, co-presentation network, and co-citation through modern metrics and data visualization methods. Through the mining of key data, the data correlation is further explored, and the results obtained can be used to scientifically and reasonably predict the depression-related information. This study aims to show the spatial and temporal distribution of research countries, journals, authors, and institutions in the field of depression in a more concise manner through a relational network. A deeper understanding of the internal structure of the research community will help researchers and institutions to establish more accurate and effective global collaborations, in line with the trend of human destiny and globalization. In addition, the study will allow for the timely identification of gaps in current research. A more targeted research direction will be established, a more complete picture of the new developments in the field of depression today will be obtained, and the research protocol will be informed for further adjustments. The results of these analyses will help researchers understand the evolution of this field of study. Overall, this paper uses literature data analysis to find research hotspots in the field of depression, analyze the knowledge structure within different studies, and provide a basis for predicting research frontiers. This study analyzed the literature in the field of depression using CiteSpace 5.8.R2 (64-bit) to analyze collaborative networks, including country network analysis, journal network analysis, category network analysis, researcher network analysis, and institutional network analysis using CiteSpace 5.8.R2 (64-bit). In addition, literature co-citation, keyword co-presentation, and cluster analysis of depression research hotspots were also performed. Thus, exploring the knowledge dimensions of the field, quantifying the research patterns in the field, and uncovering emerging trends in the field will help to obtain more accurate and complete information. The large amount of current research results related to depression will be presented more intuitively and accurately with the medium of information technology, and the scientific evaluation of research themes and trend prediction will be provided from a new perspective.

Data Sources

The data in this paper comes from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection. The time years were selected as 2004–2019. First, the literature was retrieved after entering “depression” using the title search method. A total of 73,829 articles, excluding “depression” as “suppression,” “decline,” “sunken,” “pothole,” “slump,” “low pressure,” “frustration.” The total number of articles with other meanings such as “depression” was 5,606, and the total number of valid articles related to depression was 68,223. Next, the title search method was used to search for studies related to “major depressive disorder” not “depression,” and a total of 8,070 articles were retrieved. For the two search strategies, a total of 76,293 records were collected. The relevant literature retrieved under the two methods were combined and exported in “plain text” file format. The exported records included: “full records and references cited.” CiteSpace processed the data to obtain 41,408 valid records, covering all depression-related research articles for the period 2004–2019, and used this as the basis for analysis.

Processing Tools

CiteSpace ( 18 ), developed by Chao-Mei Chen, a professor in the School of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University, is a Java-based program with powerful data visualization capabilities and is one of the most widely used knowledge mapping tools. The software version used in this study is CiteSpace 5.8.R2 (64-bit).

Methods of Analysis

This study uses bibliometrics and data visualization as analytical methods. First, the application of bibliometrics to the field of depression helped to identify established and emerging research clusters, demonstrating the value of research in this area. Second, data visualization provides multiple perspectives on the data, presenting correlations in a clearer “knowledge graph” that can reveal underestimated and overlooked trends, patterns, and differences ( 19 ). CiteSpace is mainly based on the “co-occurrence clustering idea,” which extracts the information units (keywords, authors, institutions, countries, journals, etc.) in the data by classification, and then further reconstructs the data in the information units to form networks based on different types and strengths of connections (e.g., keyword co-occurrence, author collaboration, etc.). The resulting networks include nodes and links, where the nodes represent the information units of the literature and the links represent the existence of connections (co-occurrence) between the nodes. Finally, the network is measured, statistically analyzed, and presented in a visual way. The analysis needs to focus on: the overall structure of the network, key nodes and paths. The key evaluation indicators in this study are: betweenness centrality, year, keyword frequency, and burst strength. Betweenness centrality (BC) is the number of times a node acts as the shortest bridge between two other nodes. The higher the number of times a node acts as an “intermediary,” the greater its betweenness centrality. Betweenness centrality is a measure of the importance of articles found and measured by nodes in the network by labeling the category (or authors, journals, institutions, etc.) with purple circles. There may be many shortest paths between two nodes in the network, and by counting all the shortest paths of any two nodes in the network, if many of the shortest paths pass through a node, then the node is considered to have high betweenness centrality. In CiteSpace, nodes with betweenness centrality over 0.1 are called critical nodes. Year, which represents the publication time of the article. Frequency, which represents the number of occurrences. Burst strength, an indicator used to measure articles with sudden rise or sudden decline in citations. Nodes with high burst strength usually represent a shift in a certain research area and need to be focused on, and the burst article points are indicated in red. The nodes and their sizes and colors are first analyzed initially, and further analyzed by betweenness centrality indicators for evaluation. Each node represents an article, and the larger the node, the greater the frequency of the keyword word and the greater the relevance to the topic. Similarly, the color of the node represents time: the warmer the color, the more recent the time; the colder the color, the older the era; the node with a purple outer ring is a node with high betweenness centrality; the color of each annual ring can determine the time distribution: the color of the annual ring represents the corresponding time, and the thickness of one annual ring is proportional to the number of articles within the corresponding time division; the dominant color can reflect the relative concentration of the emergence time; the node The appearance of red annual rings in the annual rings means hot spots, and the frequency of citations has been or is still increasing rapidly.

Large-Scale Assessment

Country analysis.

During the period 2004–2019, a total of 157 countries/territories have conducted research on depression, which is about 67.38% of 233 countries/territories worldwide. This shows that depression is receiving attention from many countries/regions around the world. Figure 1 shows the geographical distribution of published articles for 157 countries. The top 15 countries are ranked according to the number of articles published. Table 1 lists the top 15 countries with the highest number of publications in the field of depression worldwide from 2004 to 2019. These 15 countries include 4 Asian countries (Peoples R China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey), 2 North American countries (USA, Canada), 1 South American country (Brazil), 7 European countries (UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden), and 1 Oceania country (Australia).

Geographical distributions of publications, 2004–2019.

The top 15 productive countries.

TP, total publications; TP R (%), the ratio of the amount of the publications in the country to the publications in the word during 2004–2019; BC, betweenness centrality; TPA (million), total publications in all areas; TPA R (%), the ratio of the amount of publications in depression to publications in all areas .

Overall, the main distribution of these articles is in USA and some European countries, such as UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, and Sweden. This means that these countries are more interested and focused on research on depression compared to others. The total number of publications across all research areas in the Web of Science core collection is similar to the distribution of depression research areas, with the trend toward USA, UK, and Peoples R China as leading countries being unmistakable, and USA has been a leader in the field of depression, with far more articles published than any other country. It can also be seen that USA is the country with the highest betweenness centrality in the network of national collaborations analyzed in this paper. USA research in the field of depression is closely linked to global research, and is an important part of the global collaborative network for depression research. As of 2019, the total number of articles published in depression performance research in USA represents 27.13% of the total number of articles published in depression worldwide, which is ~4 times more than the second-place country, UK, which is far ahead of other countries. Peoples R China, as the third most published country, has a dominant number of articles, but its betweenness centrality is 0.01, reflecting the fact that Peoples R China has less collaborative research with other countries, so Peoples R China should strengthen its foreign collaborative research and actively establish global scientific research partnerships to seek development and generate breakthroughs in cooperation. The average percentage of scientific research on depression in each country is about 0.19%, also highlighting the urgent need to address depression as one of the global human health problems. The four Asian countries included in the top 15 countries are Peoples R China, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey, with Peoples R China ranking third with 6.72% of the total number of all articles counted. The distribution may be explained by the fact that Peoples R China is the largest developing country with a rapid development rate as the largest. Along with the steady rise in the country's economic power, people are creating economic benefits and their health is becoming a consumable commodity. The lifetime prevalence and duration of depression varies by country and region ( 2 ), but the high prevalence and persistence of depression worldwide confirms the increasing severity of the disease worldwide. The WHO estimates that more than 300 million people, or 4.4% of the world's population, suffer from depression ( 20 ), with the number of people suffering from depression increasing at a patient rate of 18.4% between 2005 and 2015. Depression, one of the most prevalent mental illnesses of our time, has caused both physical and psychological harm to many people, and it has become the leading cause of disability worldwide today, and in this context, there is increased interest and focus on research into depression. It is expected that a more comprehensive understanding of depression and finding ways to prevent and cope with the occurrence of this disease can help people get rid of the pain and shadow brought by depression, obtain a healthy and comfortable physical and mental environment and physical health, and make Chinese contributions to the cause of human health. Undoubtedly, the occurrence of depressive illnesses in the context of irreversible human social development has stimulated a vigorous scientific research environment on depression in Peoples R China and other developing countries and contributed to the improvement of research capacity in these countries. Moreover, from a different perspective, the geographical distribution of articles in this field also represents the fundamental position of the country in the overall scientific and academic research field.

Growth Trend Analysis

Figure 2 depicts the distribution of 38,433 articles from the top 10 countries in terms of the number of publications and the trend of growth during 2004–2019.

The distribution of publications in top 10 productive countries, 2004–2019. Source: author's calculation. National development classification criteria refer to “Human Development Report 2020” ( 21 ).

First, the number of articles published per year for the top 10 countries in terms of productivity was counted and then the white bar chart in Figure 2 was plotted, with the year as the horizontal coordinate and total publications as the vertical coordinate, showing the distribution of the productivity of articles in the field of depression per year. The total number of publications for the period 2004–2019 is 38,433. Based on the white bars and line graphs in Figure 2 , we can divide this time period into three growth periods. The number of publications in each growth period is calculated based on the number of publications per year. As can be seen from the figure, the period 2004–2019 can be divided into three main growth periods, namely 2004–2009, 2010–2012, and 2013–2019, the first growth period being from 2004 to 2009, the number of publications totaled 6,749, accounting for 23.97% of all publications; from 2010 to 2012, the number of publications totaled 8,236, accounting for 17.56% of all publications; and from 2013 to 2019, the number of publications totaled 22,473, accounting for 58.47% of all publications. Of these, 2006 was the first year of sharp growth with an annual growth rate of 19.97%, 2009 was the second year of sharp growth with an annual growth rate of 17.64%, and 2008 was the third year of sharp growth with an annual growth rate of 16.09%. In the last 5 years, 2019 has also shown a sharp growth trend with a growth rate of 14.34%. Notably, in 2010 and 2013, there was negative growth with the growth rate of −3.39 and −1.45%. In the last 10 years, depression research has become one of the most valuable areas of human research. It can also be noted that the number of publications in the field of depression in these 10 countries has been increasing year after year.

Second, the analysis is conducted from the perspective of national development, divided into developed and developing countries, as shown in the orange bar chart in Figure 2 , where the horizontal coordinate is year and the vertical coordinate is total publications, comparing the article productivity variability between developed and developing countries. The top 10 most productive countries in the field of depression globally include nine developed countries and one developing country, respectively. During the period 2004–2019, 34,631 papers were published in developed countries and 3,802 papers were published in developing countries, with developed countries accounting for 90.11% of the 38,433 articles and developing countries accounting for 9.89%, and the total number of publications in developed countries was about 9 times higher than that in developing countries. During the period 2004–2019, the number of publications in developed countries showed negative growth in 2 years (2010 and 2013) with growth rates of −3.39 and −1.45%, respectively. The rest of the years showed positive growth with growth rates of 1.52% (2005), 19.97 (2006), 8.11 (2007), 12.70 (2008), 17.64 (2009), 13.22 (2011), 10.17 (2012), 16.09 (2014), 10.46 (2015), 4.10 (2016), 1.59 (2017), 3.91 (2018), and 14.34 (2019), showing three periods of positive growth: 2004–2009, 2011–2012, and 2014–2019, with the highest growth rate of 19.97% in 2006. Recent years have also shown a higher growth trend, with a growth rate of 14.34% in 2019. It is worth noting that developing countries have been showing positive growth in the number of articles in the period 2004–2019, with annual growth rates of 81.25 (2005), 17.24 (2006), 35.29 (2007), 19.57 (2008), 65.45 (2009), 13.19 (2010), 29.13 (2011), 54.89 (2012), 12.14 (2013), 36.36 (2014), 14.92 (2015), 16.02 (2016), 10.24 (2017), 21.17 (2018), and 31.37 (2019), with the highest growth rate of 81.25% in 2005. In the field of depression research, developed countries are still the main force and occupy an important position.

Further, 10 countries with the highest productivity in the field of depression are compared, total publications in the vertical coordinate, and the colored scatter plot contains 10 colored dots, representing 10 different countries. On the one hand, the variability of the contributions of different countries in the same time frame can be compared horizontally. On the other hand, it is possible to compare vertically the variability of the growth of different countries over time. Among them, USA, with about 40.29% of the world's publications in the field of depression, has always been a leader in the field of depression with its rich research results. Peoples R China, as the only developing country, ranks 3rd in the top 10 countries with high production of research papers in the field of depression, and Peoples R China's research in the field of depression has shown a rapid growth trend, and by 2016, it has jumped to become the 2nd largest country in the world, with the number of published papers increasing year by year, which has a broad prospect and great potential for development.

Distribution of Periodicals

Table 2 lists the top 15 journals in order of number of journal co-citations. In the field of depression, the top 15 cited journals accounted for 19.06% of the total number of co-citations, nearly one in five of the total number of journal co-citations. In particular, the top 3 journals were ARCH GEN PSYCHIAT (ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHIATRY), J AFFECT DISORDERS (JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS), and AM J PSYCHIAT (AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY), with co-citation counts of 20,499, 20,302, and 20,143, with co-citation rates of 2.09, 2.07, and 2.06%, respectively. The main research area of ARCH GEN PSYCHIAT is Psychiatry; the main research area of the journal J AFFECT DISORDERS is Neurosciences and Neurology, Psychiatry; AM J PSYCHIAT is the main research area of Psychiatry, and the three journals have “psychiatry” in common, making them the most frequently co-cited journals in the field of depression.

The top 15 co-cited journals.

TP, total publications; TP R (%), the ratio of the amount of the journal's publications to the total publications; BC, betweenness centrality .

Figure 3 shows the network relationship graph of the cited journals from 2004 to 2019. The figure takes g-index as the selection criteria, the scale factor k = 25 to include more nodes. Each node of the graph represents each journal, the node size represents the number of citation frequencies, the label size represents the size of the betweenness centrality of the journal in the network, and the links between journals represent the co-citation relationships. The journal co-citation map reflects the structure of the journals, indicating that there are links between journals and that the journals include similar research topics. These journals included research topics related to neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and psychology. The journal with betweenness centrality size in the top 1 was ARCH GEN PSYCHIAT, with betweenness centrality size of 0.07, and impact shadows of 14.48. ARCH GEN PSYCHIAT, has research themes of Psychiatry. In all, these journals in Figure 3 occupy an important position in the journal's co-citation network and have strong links with other journals.

Prominent journals involved in depression. The betweenness centrality of a node in the network measures the importance of the position of the node in the network. Two types of nodes may have high betweenness centrality scores: (1) Nodes that are highly connected to other nodes, (2) Nodes are positioned between different groups of nodes. The lines represent the link between two different nodes.

Distribution of Categories

Table 3 lists the 15 most popular categories in the field of depression research during the period 2004–2019. In general, the main disciplines involved are neuroscience, psychology, pharmacy, medicine, and health care, which are closely related to human life and health issues. Of these, psychiatry accounted for 20.78%, or about one-five, making it the most researched category. The study of depression focuses on neuroscience, reflecting the essential characteristics of depression as a category of mental illness and better reflecting the fact that depression is an important link in the human public health care. In addition, Table 3 shows that the category with the highest betweenness centrality is Neuroscience, followed by Public, Environment & Occupational Health, and then Pharmacology & Pharmacy, with betweenness centrality of 0.16, 0.13, and 0.11, respectively. It is found that the research categories of depression are also centered on disciplines such as neuroscience, public health and pharmacology, indicating that research on depression requires a high degree of integration of multidisciplinary knowledge and integration of information from various disciplines in order to have a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the depression.

The top 15 productive categories, 2004–2019.

TP, total publications; TP R (%), the ratio of the amount of the category's publications to the total publications; BC, betweenness centrality .

Figure 4 shows the nine categories with the betweenness centrality in the category research network, with Neuroscience being the node with the highest betweenness centrality in this network, meaning that Neuroscience is most strongly linked to all research categories in the field of depression research. Depression is a debilitating psychiatric disorder with mood disorders. It is worth noting that the development of depression not only has psychological effects on humans, but also triggers many somatic symptoms that have a bad impact on their daily work and life, giving rise to the second major mediating central point of research with public health as its theme. The somatization symptoms of depression often manifest as abnormalities in the cardiovascular system, and many studies have looked at the pathology of the cardiovascular system in the hope of finding factors that influence the onset of depression, mechanisms that trigger it or new ways to treat it. Thus, depression involves not only the nervous system, but also interacts with the human cardiovascular system, for example, and the complexity of depression dictates that the study of depression is an in-depth study based on complex systems.

Prominent categories involved in depression, 2004–2019. The betweenness centrality of a node in the network measures the importance of the position of the node in the network. Two types of nodes may have high betweenness centrality scores: (1) Nodes that are highly connected to other nodes, (2) Nodes are positioned between different groups of nodes. The lines represent the link between two different nodes.

Author Statistics

The results of the analysis showed that there were many researchers working in the field of depression over the past 16 years, and 63 of the authors published at least 30 articles related to depression. Table 4 lists the 15 authors with the highest number of articles published. It includes the rank of the number of articles published, author, country, number of articles published in depression-related studies, total number of articles included in Web of Science, total number of citations, average number of citations, and H-index. According to the statistics, seven of the top 15 authors are from USA, three from the Netherlands, one from Canada, one from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Italy, and one from Germany. From this, it can be seen that these productive authors are from developed countries, thus it can be inferred that developed countries have a better research environment, more advanced research technology and more abundant research funding. The evaluation indicators in the author co-occurrence network are frequency, betweenness centrality and time of first appearance. The higher the frequency, i.e., the higher the number of collaborative publications, the more collaboration, the higher the information dissemination rate, the three authors with the highest frequency in this author co-occurrence network are MAURIZIO FAVA, BRENDA W. J. H. PENNINX, MADHUKAR H. TRIVEDI; the higher the betweenness centrality, i.e., the closer the relationship with other authors, the more collaboration, the higher the information dissemination rate, the three authors with the highest betweenness centrality are the three authors with the highest betweenness centrality are MICHAEL E. THASE, A. JOHN RUSH; the time of first appearance, i.e., the longer the influence generated by the author's research, the higher the information dissemination rate; in addition, the impact factor and citations can also reflect the information dissemination efficiency of the authors.

The top 15 authors in network of co-authorship, 2004–2019.

BC, betweenness centrality; TP, total publications; AP, publications in all areas; DP (%), the ratio of the publications about depression in 2004–2019 to the publications about all areas in all times; TC, total citation; CPP (%), citations per publication .

The timezone view ( Figure 5 ) in the author co-occurrence network clearly shows the updates and interactions of author collaborations, for example. All nodes are positioned in a two-dimensional coordinate with the horizontal axis of time, and according to the time of first posting, the nodes are set in different time zones, and their positions are sequentially upward with the time axis, showing a left-to-right, bottom-up knowledge evolution diagram. The time period 2004–2019 is divided into 16 time zones, one for each year, and each circle in the figure represents an author, and the time zone in which the circle appears is the year when the author first published an article in the data set of this study. The closer the color, the warmer the color, the closer the time, the colder the color, the older the era, the thickness of an annual circle, and the number of articles within the corresponding time division is proportional, the dominant color can reflect the relative concentration of the emergence time, the nodes appear in the annual circle of the red annual circle, that is, on behalf of the hot spot, the frequency of being cited was or is still increasing sharply. Nodes with purple outer circles are nodes with high betweenness centrality. The time zone view demonstrates the growth of author collaboration in the field, and it can be found from the graph that the number of author collaborations increases over time, and the frequency of publications in the author collaboration network is high; observe that the thickness of the warm annual rings in the graph is much greater than the thickness of the cold annual rings, which represents the increase of collaboration in time; there are many authors in all time zones, which indicates that there are many research collaborations and achievements in the field, and the field is in a period of collaborative prosperity. The linkage relationship between the sub-time-periods can be seen by the linkage relationship between the time periods, and it can be found from the figure that there are many linkages in the field in all time periods, which indicates that the author collaboration in the field of depression research is strong.

Timezone view of the author's co-existing network in depression, 2004–2019. The circle represents the author, the time zone in which the circle appears is the year in which the author first published in this study dataset, the radius of the circle represents the frequency of appearance, the color represents the different posting times, the lines represent the connections between authors, and the time zone diagram shows the evolution of author collaboration.

Institutional Statistics

Table 5 lists the top 15 research institutions in network of co-authors' institutions. These include 10 American research institutions, two Netherlands research institutions, one UK research institution, one Canadian research institution and one Australian research institution, all of which, according to the statistics, are from developed countries. Of these influential research institutions, 66.7% are from USA. Figure 6 shows the collaborative network with these influential research institutions as nodes. Kings Coll London (0.2), Univ Michigan (0.17), Univ Toronto (0.15), Stanford Univ (0.14), Univ Penn (0.14), Univ Pittsburgh (0.14), Univ Melbourne (0.12), Virginia Commonwealth Univ (0.12), Columbia Univ (0.1), Duke Univ (0.1), Massachusetts Gen Hosp (0.1), Vrije Univ Amsterdam (0.1), with betweenness centrality >0.1. Kings Coll London has a central place in this collaborative network and is influential in the field of depression research. Table 6 lists the 15 institutions with the strong burst strength. The top 3 institutions are all from USA. Univ Copenhagen, Univ Illinois, Harvard Med Sch, Boston Univ, Univ Adelaide, Heidelberg Univ, Univ New South Wales, and Icahn Sch Med Mt Sinai have had strong burst strength in recent years. It suggests that these institutions may have made a greater contribution to the field of depression over the course of this year and more attention could be paid to their research.

The top 15 institutions in network of co-authors' institutions, 2004–2019.

TP, total publications; BC, betweenness centrality .

Prominent institutions involved in depression, 2004–2019. The betweenness centrality of a node in the network measures the importance of the position of the node in the network. Two types of nodes may have high betweenness centrality scores: (1) Nodes that are highly connected to other nodes, (2) Nodes are positioned between different groups of nodes. The lines represent the link between two different nodes.

The top 15 institutions with the strongest citation bursts, 2004–2019.

Burst denote the citation burst strength; blue thin lines denote the whole period of 2004962019, which provide a useful means to trace the development of research focus; the location and length of red thick lines denote the start and end time during the whole period of the bursts and how long the burst lasts .

Summing up the above analysis, it can be seen that the research institutions in USA are at the center of the depression research field, are at the top of the world in terms of quantity and quality of research, and are showing continuous growth in vitality. Research institutions in USA, as pioneers among all research institutions, lead and drive the development of depression research and play an important role in cutting-edge research in the field of depression.

Article Citations

Table 7 lists the 16 articles that have been cited more than 1,000 times within the statistical range of this paper from 2004 to 2019. As can be seen from the table, the most cited article was written by Dowlati et al. from Canada and published in BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY 2010, which was cited 2,556 times. In addition, 11 of these 16 highly cited articles were from the USA. Notably, two articles by Kroenke, K as first author appear in this list, ranked 7th and 11th, respectively. In addition, there are three articles from Canada, one article from Switzerland, and one article from the UK. And interestingly, all of these countries are developed countries. It can be reflected that developed countries have ample research experience and high quality of research in the field of depression research. On the other hand, it also reflects that depression is a key concern in developed countries. These highly cited articles provide useful information to many researchers and are of high academic and exploratory value.

The top 15 frequency cited articles, 2004–2019.

TP, total publications (citations) .

Research Hotspots Ang Frontiers

Keyword analysis.

The keyword analysis of depression yielded the 25 most frequent keywords in Table 8 and the keyword co-occurrence network in Figure 7 . Also, the data from this study were detected by burst, the 25 keywords with the strongest burst strength were obtained in Table 9 . These results bring out the popular and cutting-edge research directions in the field clearly.

Top 25 frequent keywords in the period of 2004–2019.

Count, number of times the article has been cited; BC, betweenness centrality .

Keyword co-occurrence network in depression, 2004–2019.

Top 25 keywords with strongest citation bursts in the period of 2004–2019.

Burst denote the citation burst strength; blue thin lines denote the whole period of 2004–2019, which provide a useful means to trace the development of research focus; the location and length of red thick lines denote the start and end time during the whole period of the bursts and how long the burst lasts .

The articles on depression during 2004–2019 were analyzed in 1-year time slices, and the top 25 keywords with the highest frequency of occurrence were selected from each slice to obtain the keyword network shown in Table 8 . The top 25 keywords with the highest frequencies were: symptom, disorder, major depression, prevalence, meta-analysis, anxiety, risk, scale, association, quality of life, health, risk factor, stress, validity, validation, mental health, women, double blind, brain, population, disease, impact, primary care, mood, and efficacy. High-frequency nodes respond to popular keywords and are an important basis for the field of depression research.

Figure 7 shows the co-occurrence network mapping of keywords regarding depression research. Each circle in the figure is a node representing a keyword, and the greater the betweenness centrality, the more critical the position of the node in the network. The top 10 keywords in terms of betweenness centrality are: symptom (0.6), major depression (0.28), prevalence (0.27), disorder (0.25), double blind (0.18), risk factor (0.12), stress (0.11), children (0.1), schizophrenia (0.1), and expression (0.1). Nodes with high betweenness centrality reflect that the keyword forms a co-occurrence relationship with multiple other keywords in the domain. A higher betweenness centrality indicates that it is more related to other keywords, and therefore, the node plays an important role in the study. Relatively speaking, these nodes represent the main research directions in the field of depression; they are also the key research directions in this period, and to a certain extent, represent the research hotspots in this period.

Burst detection was performed on the keywords, and the 25 keywords with the strongest strength were extracted, as shown in Table 9 . These keywords contain: fluoxetine, community, follow up, illness, psychiatric disorder, dementia, trial, placebo, disability, serotonin reuptake inhibitor, myocardial infarction, hospital anxiety, antidepressant treatment, late life depression, United States, epidemiology, major depression, model, severity, adolescent, people, prefrontal cortex, management, meta-analysis, and expression. The keywords that burst earlier include fluoxetine (2004), community (2004), follow up (2004), illness (2004), and psychiatric disorder (2004), are keywords that imply that researchers focused on themes early in the field of depression. As researchers continue to explore, the study of depression is changing day by day, and the keywords that have burst in recent years are people (2015), prefrontal cortex (2016), management (2016), meta-analysis (2017), and expression (2017). Reflecting the fact that depression research in recent years has mainly focused on human subjects, the focus has been on the characterization of populations with depression onset. The relationship between depression and the brain has aroused the curiosity of researchers, what exactly are the causes that trigger depression and what are the effects of depression for the manifestation of depression have caused a wide range of discussions in the research community, and the topics related to it have become the most popular studies and have been the focus of research in recent years. All of these research areas showed considerable growth, indicating that research into this area is gaining traction, suggesting that it is becoming a future research priority. The keywords with the strongest burst strength are fluoxetine (111.2), community (110.08), antidepressant treatment (94.28), severity (88.35), meta-analysis (86.42), people (85.33), and follow up (84.46). The rapid growth of research based on these keywords indicates that these topics are the most promising and interesting. The keywords that has been around the longest burst are follow up (2004–2013), model (2013–2019), hospital anxiety (2008–2013), severity (2014–2019), and psychiatric disorder (2004–2008), researchers have invested a lot of research time in these research directions, making many research results, and responding to the exploratory value and significance of research on these topics. At the same time, the longer duration of burst also proves that these research directions have research potential and important value.

Research Hotspots

Hotspots must mainly have the characteristics of high frequency, high betweenness centrality, strong burst, and time of emergence can be used as secondary evaluation indicators. The higher the number of occurrences, the higher the degree of popularity and attention. The higher betweenness centrality means the greater the influence and the higher the importance. Nodes with strong burst usually represent key shift nodes and need to be focused on. The time can be dynamically adjusted according to the target time horizon of the analysis. Thus, based on the results of statistical analysis, it is clear that the research hotspots in the field of depression can be divided into four main areas: etiology (external factors, internal factors), impact (quality of life, disease symptoms, co-morbid symptoms), treatment (interventions, drug development, care modalities), and assessment (population, size, symptoms, duration of disease, morbidity, mortality, effectiveness).

Risk factors for depression include a family history of depression, early life abuse and neglect, and female sexuality and recent life stressors. Physical illnesses also increase the risk of depression, particularly increasing the prevalence associated with metabolic (e.g., cardiovascular disease) and autoimmune disorders.

Research on the etiology of depression can be divided into internal and external factors. In recent years, researchers have increasingly focused on the impact of external factors on depression. Depression is influenced by environmental factors related to social issues, such as childhood experiences, social interactions, and lifestyles. Adverse childhood experiences are risk factors for depression and anxiety in adolescence ( 37 ) and are a common pathway to depression in adults ( 38 ). Poor interpersonal relationships with classmates, family, teachers, and friends increase the prevalence of depression in adolescents ( 39 ). Related studies assessed three important, specific indicators of the self-esteem domain: social confidence, academic ability, and appearance ( 40 ). The results suggest that these three dimensions of self-esteem are key risk factors for increased depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. The vulnerability model ( 41 ) suggests that low self-esteem is a causal risk factor for depression, and low self-esteem is thought to be one of the main causes of the onset and progression of depression, with individuals who exhibit low self-esteem being more likely to develop social anxiety and social withdrawal, and thus having a sense of isolation ( 42 ), which in turn leads to subsequent depression. Loneliness predicts depression in adolescents. Individuals with high levels of loneliness experience more stress and tension from psychological and physical sources in their daily lives, which, combined with insufficient care from society, can lead to depression ( 43 ). A mechanism of association exists between life events and mood disorders, with negative life events being directly associated with depressive symptoms ( 44 ). In a cross-sectional study conducted in Shanghai, the prevalence of depression was higher among people who worked longer hours, and daily lifestyle greatly influenced the prevalence of depression ( 45 ). A number of studies in recent years have presented a number of interesting ideas, and they suggest that depression is related to different environmental factors, such as temperature, sunlight hours, and air pollution. Environmental factors have been associated with suicidal behavior. Traffic noise is a variable that triggers depression and is associated with personality disorders such as depression ( 46 ). The harmful effects of air pollution on mental health, inhalation of air pollutants can trigger neuroinflammation and oxidative stress and induce dopaminergic neurotoxicity. A study showed that depression was associated with an increase in ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) ( 47 ).

Increased inflammation is a feature of many diseases and even systemic disorders, such as some autoimmune diseases [e.g., type 1 diabetes ( 48 ) or rheumatoid arthritis ( 49 )] and infectious diseases [e.g., hepatitis and sepsis ( 50 )], are associated with an inflammatory response and have been found to increase the risk of depression. A growing body of evidence supports a bidirectional association between depression and inflammatory processes, with stressors and pathogens leading to excessive or prolonged inflammatory responses when combined with predisposing factors (e.g., childhood adversity and modifying factors such as obesity). The resulting illnesses (e.g., pain, sleep disorders), depressive symptoms, and negative health (e.g., poor diet, sedentary lifestyle) may act as mediating pathways leading to inflammation and depression. In terms of mechanistic pathways, cytokines induce depression by affecting different mood-related processes. Elevated inflammatory signals can dysregulate the metabolism of neurotransmitters, damaging neurons, and thus altering neural activity in the brain. In addition cytokines can modulate depression by regulating hormone levels. Inflammation can have different effects on different populations depending on individual physiology, and even lower levels of inflammation may have a depressive effect on vulnerable individuals. This may be due to lower parasympathetic activity, poorer sensitivity to glucocorticoid inhibitory feedback, a greater response to social threat in the anterior oral cortex or amygdala and a smaller hippocampus. Indeed, these are all factors associated with major depression that can affect the sensitivity to the inhibitory consequences of inflammatory stimuli.

Depression triggers many somatization symptoms, which can manifest as insomnia, menopausal syndrome, cardiovascular problems, pain, and other somatic symptoms. There is a link between sleep deprivation and depression, with insomnia being a trigger and maintenance of depression, and more severe insomnia and chronic symptoms predicting more severe depression. Major depression is considered to be an independent risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease and a predictor of cardiovascular events ( 51 ). Patients with depression are extremely sensitive to pain and have increased pain perception ( 52 ) and is associated with an increased risk of suicide ( 53 , 54 ), and generally the symptoms of these pains are not relieved by medication.

Studies have shown that depression triggers an inflammatory response, promoting an increase in cytokines in response to stressors vs. pathogens. For example, mild depressive symptoms have been associated with an amplified and prolonged inflammatory response ( 55 , 56 ) following influenza vaccination in older adults and pregnant women. Among women who have recently given birth, those with a lifetime history of major depression have greater increases in both serum IL-6 and soluble IL-6 receptors after delivery than women without a history of depression ( 57 ). Pro-inflammatory agents, such as interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), for specific somatization disorders [e.g., hepatitis C or malignant melanoma ( 58 , 59 )], although effective for somatic disorders, pro-inflammatory therapy often leads to psychiatric side effects. Up to 80% of patients treated with IFN-α have been reported to suffer from mild to moderate depressive symptoms.

Clinical trials have shown better antidepressant treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs compared to placebo, either as monotherapy ( 60 , 61 ) or as an add-on treatment ( 62 – 65 ) to antidepressants ( 66 , 67 ). However, findings like whether NSAIDs can be safely used in combination with antidepressants are controversial. Patients with depression often suffer from somatic co-morbidities, which must be included in the benefit/risk assessment. It is important to consider the type of medication, duration of treatment, and dose, and always balance the potential treatment effect with the risk of adverse events in individual patients. Depression, childhood adversity, stressors, and diet all affect the gut microbiota and promote gut permeability, another pathway that enhances the inflammatory response, and effective depression treatment may have profound effects on mood, inflammation, and health. Early in life gut flora colonization is associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation and affects the enteric nervous system, which is associated with the risk of major depression, gut flora dysbiosis leads to the onset of TLR4-mediated inflammatory responses, and pro-inflammatory factors are closely associated with depression. Clinical studies have shown that in the gut flora of depressed patients, pro-inflammatory bacteria such as Enterobacteriaceae and Desulfovibrio are enriched, while short-chain fatty acid producing bacteria are reduced, and some of these bacterial taxa may transmit peripheral inflammation into the brain via the brain-gut axis ( 68 ). In addition, gut flora can affect the immune system by modulating neurotransmitters (5-hydroxytryptamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, norepinephrine, etc.), which in turn can influence the development of depression ( 69 ). Therefore, antidepressant drugs targeting gut flora are a future research direction, and diet can have a significant impact on mood by regulating gut flora.

As the molecular basis of clinical depression remains unclear, and treatments and therapeutic effects are limited and associated with side effects, researchers have worked to discover new treatment modalities for depression. High-amplitude low-frequency musical impulse stimulation as an additional treatment modality seems to produce beneficial effects ( 70 ). Studies have found electroconvulsive therapy to be one of the most effective antidepressant treatment therapies ( 71 ). Physical exercise can promote molecular changes that lead to a shift from a chronic pro-inflammatory to an anti-inflammatory state in the peripheral and central nervous system ( 72 ). Aromatherapy is widely used in the treatment of central nervous system disorders ( 73 ). By activating the parasympathetic nervous system, qigong can be effective in reducing depression ( 74 ). The exploration of these new treatment modalities provides more reference options for the treatment of depression.

Large-scale assessments of depression have found that the probability of developing depression varies across populations. Depression affects some specific populations more significantly, for example: adolescents, mothers, and older adults. Depression is one of the disorders that predispose to adolescence, and depression is associated with an increased risk of suicide among college students ( 75 ). Many women develop depression after childbirth. Depression that develops after childbirth is one of the most common complications for women in the postpartum period ( 76 ). The health of children born to mothers who suffer from postpartum depression can also be adversely affected ( 77 ). Depression can cause many symptoms within the central nervous system, especially in the elderly population ( 78 ).

Furthermore, one of the most consistent findings of the association between inflammation and depression is the elevated levels of peripheral pro-inflammatory markers in depressed individuals, and peripheral pro-inflammatory marker levels can also be used as a basis for the assessment of depressed patients. Studies have shown that the following pro-inflammatory markers have been found to be at increased levels in depressed individuals: CRP ( 79 , 80 ), IL-6 ( 22 , 79 , 81 , 82 ), TNF–α, and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) ( 79 , 82 ), however, this association is not unidirectional and the subsequent development of depression also increases pro-inflammatory markers ( 82 , 83 ). These biomarkers are of great interest, and depressed patients with increased inflammatory markers may represent a relatively drug-resistant population.

Frontier Analysis

The exploration and analysis of frontier areas of depression were based on the results of the analysis of the previous section on keywords. According to the evaluation index and analysis idea of this study, the frontier research topics need to have the following four characteristics: low to medium frequency, strong burst, high betweenness centrality, and the research direction in recent years. Therefore, combining the results of keyword analysis and these characteristics, it can be found that the frontier research on depression also becomes clear.

Research on Depression Characterized by Psychosexual Disorders

Exploration of biological mechanisms based on depression-associated neurological disorders and analysis of depression from a neurological perspective have always been the focus of research. Activation of neuroinflammatory pathways may contribute to the development of depression ( 84 ). A research model based on the microbial-gut-brain axis facilitates the neurobiology of depression ( 85 ). Some probiotics positively affect the central nervous system due to modulation of neuroinflammation and thus may be able to modulate depression ( 86 ). The combination of environmental issues and the neurobiological study of depression opens new research directions ( 46 ).

Research on Relevant Models of Depression

How to develop a model that meets the purpose of the study determines the outcome of the study and has become the direction that researchers have been exploring in recent years. Martínez et al. ( 87 ) developed a predictive model to assess factors that modify the treatment pathway for postpartum depression. Nie et al. ( 88 ) extended the work on predictive modeling of treatment-resistant depression to establish a predictive model for treatment-resistant depression. Rational modeling methods and behavioral testing facilitate a more comprehensive exploration of depression, with richer studies and more scientifically valid findings.

Research and Characterization of the Depressed Patient Population

Current research on special groups and depression has received much attention. In a study of a group of children, 4% were found to suffer from depression ( 89 ). The diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders is an important component of pediatric care. Second, some studies of populations with distinct characteristics have been based primarily on female populations. Maternal perinatal depression is also a common mental disorder with a prevalence of over 10% ( 90 ). In addition, geriatric depression is a chronic and specific disorder ( 91 ). Studies based on these populations highlight the characteristics of the disorder more directly than large-scale population explorations and are useful for conducting extended explorations from specific to generalized.

Somatic Comorbidities Associated With Depression

Depression often accompanies the onset and development of many other disorders, making the study of physical comorbidities associated with depression a new landing place for depression research. Depression is a complication of many neurological or psychopathological disorders. Depression is a common co-morbidity of glioblastoma multiforme ( 92 ). Depression is an important disorder associated with stroke ( 93 ). Chronic liver disease is associated with depression ( 94 ). The link between depressive and anxiety states and cancer has been well-documented ( 95 ). In conclusion, depression is associated with an increased risk of lung, oral, prostate, and skin cancers, an increased risk of cancer-specific death from lung, bladder, breast, colorectal, hematopoietic system, kidney, and prostate cancers, and an increased risk of all-cause mortality in lung cancer patients. The early detection and effective intervention of depression and its complications has public health and clinical implications.

Research on Mechanisms of Depression

Research based on the mechanisms of depression includes the study of disease pathogenesis, the study of drug action mechanisms, and the study of disease treatment mechanisms. Research on the pathogenesis of depression has focused more on the study of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Social pressure can change the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis ( 96 ). Studies on the mechanism of action of drugs are mostly based on their effects on the central nervous system. The antidepressant effects of Tanshinone IIA are mediated by the ERK-CREB-BDNF pathway in the hippocampus of mice ( 97 ). Research on the mechanisms of depression treatment has also centered on the central nervous system. It has been shown that the vagus nerve can transmit signals to the brain that can lead to a reduction in depressive behavior ( 98 ).

In this study, based on the 2004–2019 time period, this wealth of data is effectively integrated through data analysis and processing to reproduce the research process in a particular field and to co-present global trends in homogenous fields while organizing past research.

Journals that have made outstanding contributions in this field include ARCH GEN PSYCHIAT, J AFFECT DISORDERS and AM J PSYCHIAT. PSYCHIATRY, NEUROSCIENCES & NEUROLOGY and CLINICAL NEUROLOGY are the three most popular categories. The three researchers with the highest number of articles were MAURIZIO FAVA (USA), BRENDA W. J. H. PENNINX (NETHERLANDS) and MADHUKAR H TRIVEDI (USA). Univ Pittsburgh (USA), Kings Coll London (UK) and Harvard Univ (USA) are three of the most productive and influential research institutions. A Meta-Analysis of Cytokines in Major Depression, Evaluation of outcomes with citalopram for depression using measurement-based care in STAR*D: Implications for clinical practice and Deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression are key articles. Through keyword analysis, a distribution network centered on depression was formed. Although there are good trends in the research on depression, there are still many directions to be explored in depth. Some recommendations regarding depression are as follows.

(1) The prevention of depression can be considered by focusing on treating external factors and guiding the individual.

Faced with the rising incidence of depression worldwide and the difficulty of treating depression, researchers can think more about how to prevent the occurrence of depression. Depressed moods are often the result of stress, not only social pressures on the individual, but also environmental pressures in the developmental process, which in turn have an unhealthy relationship with the body and increase the likelihood of depression. The correlation between external factors and depression is less well-studied, but the control of external factors may be more effective in the short term than in the long term, and may be guided by self-adjustment to avoid major depressive disorder.

(2) The measurement and evaluation of the degree of depression should be developed in the direction of precision.

In the course of research, it has been found that the Depression Rating Scale is mostly used for the detection and evaluation of depression. This kind of assessment is more objective, but it still lacks accuracy, and the research on measurement techniques and methods is less, which is still at a low stage. Patients with depression usually have a variety of causes, conditions, and duration of illness that determine the degree of depression. Therefore, whether these scales can truly accurately measure depression in depressed patients needs further consideration. Accurate measurement is an important basis for evidence-based treatment of depression, and thus how to achieve accurate measurement of depression is a research direction that researchers can move toward.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for further research to address these issues.

A systematic analysis of research in the field of depression in this study concludes that the distribution of countries, journals, categories, authors, institutions, and citations may help researchers and research institutions to establish closer collaboration, develop appropriate publication plans, grasp research hotspots, identify valuable research ideas, understand current emerging research, and determine research directions. In addition, there are still some limitations that can be overcome in future work. First, due to the lack of author and address information in older published articles, it may not be possible to accurately calculate their collaboration; second, although the data scope of this paper is limited to the Web of Science, it can adequately meet our objectives.

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

HW conceived and designed the analysis, collected the data, performed the analysis, and wrote the paper. XT, XW, and YW conceived and designed the analysis. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 81973495.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

The Great Depression

“Regarding the Great Depression, … we did it. We’re very sorry. … We won’t do it again.” —Ben Bernanke, November 8, 2002, in a speech given at “A Conference to Honor Milton Friedman … On the Occasion of His 90th Birthday.”

In 2002, Ben Bernanke , then a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, acknowledged publicly what economists have long believed. The Federal Reserve’s mistakes contributed to the “worst economic disaster in American history” (Bernanke 2002).

Bernanke, like other economic historians, characterized the Great Depression as a disaster because of its length, depth, and consequences. The Depression lasted a decade, beginning in 1929 and ending during World War II. Industrial production plummeted. Unemployment soared. Families suffered. Marriage rates fell. The contraction began in the United States and spread around the globe. The Depression was the longest and deepest downturn in the history of the United States and the modern industrial economy.

The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the economic expansion of the Roaring Twenties came to an end. A series of financial crises punctuated the contraction. These crises included a stock market crash in 1929 , a series of regional banking panics in 1930 and 1931 , and a series of national and international financial crises from 1931 through 1933 . The downturn hit bottom in March 1933, when the commercial banking system collapsed and President Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday . 1    Sweeping reforms of the financial system accompanied the economic recovery, which was interrupted by a double-dip recession in 1937 . Return to full output and employment occurred during the Second World War.

To understand Bernanke’s statement, one needs to know what he meant by “we,” “did it,” and “won’t do it again.”

By “we,” Bernanke meant the leaders of the Federal Reserve System. At the start of the Depression, the Federal Reserve’s decision-making structure was decentralized and often ineffective. Each district had a governor who set policies for his district, although some decisions required approval of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. The Board lacked the authority and tools to act on its own and struggled to coordinate policies across districts. The governors and the Board understood the need for coordination; frequently corresponded concerning important issues; and established procedures and programs, such as the Open Market Investment Committee, to institutionalize cooperation. When these efforts yielded consensus, monetary policy could be swift and effective. But when the governors disagreed, districts could and sometimes did pursue independent and occasionally contradictory courses of action.

The governors disagreed on many issues, because at the time and for decades thereafter, experts disagreed about the best course of action and even about the correct conceptual framework for determining optimal policy. Information about the economy became available with long and variable lags. Experts within the Federal Reserve, in the business community, and among policymakers in Washington, DC, had different perceptions of events and advocated different solutions to problems. Researchers debated these issues for decades. Consensus emerged gradually. The views in this essay reflect conclusions expressed in the writings of three recent chairmen, Paul Volcke r, Alan Greenspan , and Ben Bernanke .

By “did it,” Bernanke meant that the leaders of the Federal Reserve implemented policies that they thought were in the public interest. Unintentionally, some of their decisions hurt the economy. Other policies that would have helped were not adopted.

An example of the former is the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates in 1928 and 1929. The Fed did this in an attempt to limit speculation in securities markets. This action slowed economic activity in the United States. Because the international gold standard linked interest rates and monetary policies among participating nations, the Fed’s actions triggered recessions in nations around the globe. The Fed repeated this mistake when responding to the international financial crisis in the fall of 1931. This website explores these issues in greater depth in our entries on the stock market crash of 1929 and the financial crises of 1931 through 1933 .

An example of the latter is the Fed’s failure to act as a lender of last resort during the banking panics that began in the fall of 1930 and ended with the banking holiday in the winter of 1933. This website explores this issue in essays on the banking panics of 1930 to 1931 , the banking acts of 1932 , and the banking holiday of 1933 .

One reason that Congress created the Federal Reserve, of course, was to act as a lender of last resort. Why did the Federal Reserve fail in this fundamental task? The Federal Reserve’s leaders disagreed about the best response to banking crises. Some governors subscribed to a doctrine similar to Bagehot’s dictum, which says that during financial panics, central banks should loan funds to solvent financial institutions beset by runs. Other governors subscribed to a doctrine known as real bills. This doctrine indicated that central banks should supply more funds to commercial banks during economic expansions, when individuals and firms demanded additional credit to finance production and commerce, and less during economic contractions, when demand for credit contracted. The real bills doctrine did not definitively describe what to do during banking panics, but many of its adherents considered panics to be symptoms of contractions, when central bank lending should contract. A few governors subscribed to an extreme version of the real bills doctrine labeled “liquidationist.” This doctrine indicated that during financial panics, central banks should stand aside so that troubled financial institutions would fail. This pruning of weak institutions would accelerate the evolution of a healthier economic system. Herbert Hoover’s secretary of treasury, Andrew Mellon, who served on the Federal Reserve Board, advocated this approach. These intellectual tensions and the Federal Reserve’s ineffective decision-making structure made it difficult, and at times impossible, for the Fed’s leaders to take effective action.

Among leaders of the Federal Reserve, differences of opinion also existed about whether to help and how much assistance to extend to financial institutions that did not belong to the Federal Reserve. Some leaders thought aid should only be extended to commercial banks that were members of the Federal Reserve System. Others thought member banks should receive assistance substantial enough to enable them to help their customers, including financial institutions that did not belong to the Federal Reserve, but the advisability and legality of this pass-through assistance was the subject of debate. Only a handful of leaders thought the Federal Reserve (or federal government) should directly aid commercial banks (or other financial institutions) that did not belong to the Federal Reserve. One advocate of widespread direct assistance was  Eugene Meyer , governor of the Federal Reserve Board, who was instrumental in the creation of the  Reconstruction Finance Corporation .

These differences of opinion contributed to the Federal Reserve’s most serious sin of omission: failure to stem the decline in the supply of money. From the fall of 1930 through the winter of 1933, the money supply fell by nearly 30 percent. The declining supply of funds reduced average prices by an equivalent amount. This deflation increased debt burdens; distorted economic decision-making; reduced consumption; increased unemployment; and forced banks, firms, and individuals into bankruptcy. The deflation stemmed from the collapse of the banking system, as explained in the essay on the  banking panics of 1930 and 1931 .

The Federal Reserve could have prevented deflation by preventing the collapse of the banking system or by counteracting the collapse with an expansion of the monetary base, but it failed to do so for several reasons. The economic collapse was unforeseen and unprecedented. Decision makers lacked effective mechanisms for determining what went wrong and lacked the authority to take actions sufficient to cure the economy. Some decision makers misinterpreted signals about the state of the economy, such as the nominal interest rate, because of their adherence to the real bills philosophy. Others deemed defending the gold standard by raising interests and reducing the supply of money and credit to be better for the economy than aiding ailing banks with the opposite actions.

On several occasions, the Federal Reserve did implement policies that modern monetary scholars believe could have stemmed the contraction. In the spring of 1931, the Federal Reserve began to expand the monetary base, but the expansion was insufficient to offset the deflationary effects of the banking crises. In the spring of 1932, after Congress provided the Federal Reserve with the necessary authority, the Federal Reserve expanded the monetary base aggressively. The policy appeared effective initially, but after a few months the Federal Reserve changed course. A series of political and international shocks hit the economy, and the contraction resumed. Overall, the Fed’s efforts to end the deflation and resuscitate the financial system, while well intentioned and based on the best available information, appear to have been too little and too late.

The flaws in the Federal Reserve’s structure became apparent during the initial years of the Great Depression. Congress responded by reforming the Federal Reserve and the entire financial system. Under the Hoover administration, congressional reforms culminated in the  Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act and the Banking Act of 1932 . Under the Roosevelt administration, reforms culminated in the  Emergency Banking Act of 1933 , the  Banking Act of 1933 (commonly called Glass-Steagall) , the  Gold Reserve Act of 1934 , and the  Banking Act of 1935 . This legislation shifted some of the Federal Reserve’s responsibilities to the Treasury Department and to new federal agencies such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. These agencies dominated monetary and banking policy until the 1950s.

The reforms of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s turned the Federal Reserve into a modern central bank. The creation of the modern intellectual framework underlying economic policy took longer and continues today. The Fed’s combination of a well-designed central bank and an effective conceptual framework enabled Bernanke to state confidently that “we won’t do it again.”

• 1  These business cycle dates come from the National Bureau of Economic Research . Additional materials on the Federal Reserve can be found at the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Bibliography

Bernanke, Ben. Essays on the Great Depression . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Bernanke, Ben, “ On Milton Friedman's Ninetieth Birthday ," Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke at the Conference to Honor Milton Friedman, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, November 8, 2002.

Chandler, Lester V. American Monetary Policy, 1928 to 1941 . New York: Harper and Row, 1971.

Chandler, Lester V. American’s Greatest Depression, 1929-1941 . New York: Harper Collins, 1970.

Eichengreen, Barry. “The Origins and Nature of the Great Slump Revisited.” Economic History Review 45, no. 2 (May 1992): 213–239.

Friedman, Milton and Anna Schwartz. A Monetary History of the United States: 1867-1960 . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Kindleberger, Charles P. The World in Depression, 1929-1939 : Revised and Enlarged Edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

Meltzer, Allan. A History of the Federal Reserve: Volume 1, 1913 to 1951 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Romer, Christina D. “The Nation in Depression.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, no. 2 (1993): 19-39.

Temin, Peter. Lessons from the Great Depression (Lionel Robbins Lectures) . Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989.

Written as of November 22, 2013. See disclaimer .

Essays in this Time Period

• Bank Holiday of 1933
• Banking Act of 1933 (Glass-Steagall)
• Banking Act of 1935
• Banking Acts of 1932
• Banking Panics of 1930-31
• Banking Panics of 1931-33
• Stock Market Crash of 1929
• Emergency Banking Act of 1933
• Gold Reserve Act of 1934
• Recession of 1937–38
• Roosevelt's Gold Program

Federal Reserve History

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Essay on Depression

Introduction to Depression

“I don’t feel like doing anything.”

A basic but insightful phrase that captures the essence of depression for a lot of people. It’s a persistent feeling of indifference that distorts one’s thinking and behavior rather than merely a brief period of indolence. Depression, a complex mental health condition, robs people of their vitality and zest for life, leaving them feeling trapped in a cycle of inertia. In this essay, we delve into the depths of depression, exploring its types, causes, impact, and treatment. By shedding light on this misunderstood condition, we aim to foster greater understanding and empathy in our society.

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The Nature of Depression

Depression is a multifaceted mental health disorder with intricate manifestations encompassing emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions.

1. Psychological Components

• Emotional Symptoms: Depression often engenders persistent feelings of profound sadness, hopelessness, and a pervasive sense of emptiness. Individuals may experience a diminished interest or pleasure in activities once deemed enjoyable, leading to emotional numbness and isolation. Intense irritability, anxiety, and a pervasive sense of guilt are also common emotional symptoms.
• Cognitive Symptoms: Cognitive aspects of depression involve disruptions in thought processes. Negative thinking patterns, persistent self-criticism, and a distorted perception of oneself and the world contribute to a cycle of despair. Concentration and decision-making abilities may be impaired, leading to difficulties in daily functioning.
• Behavioral Symptoms: Depressive symptoms extend beyond internal experiences, manifesting in observable behavioral changes. Individuals may exhibit social withdrawal, changes in sleep patterns (insomnia or hypersomnia), altered appetite, and decreased energy levels. Suicidal or self-harming ideas may surface in extreme situations.

2. Biological Factors

• Neurotransmitter Imbalances: Neurotransmitters are the brain’s chemical messengers, and disorders in them are frequently linked to depression. Reduced serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine levels commonly occur, influencing mood regulation and emotional stability.
• Genetics and Family History: There is a substantial genetic component to depression. Individuals with a family history of depression are at a higher risk, suggesting a hereditary predisposition. Specific genetic variations may contribute to vulnerability, interacting with environmental factors.
• Brain Structure and Function: Research on the neurobiology of depression suggests that depressed people’s brains have structural and functional changes. Researchers commonly observe changes in the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, which impact emotional processing, memory, and decision-making.

Signs and Symptoms of Depression

Early intervention and successful treatment of depression depend on the ability to identify the condition’s symptoms. Although each person’s symptom severity and presentation are unique, typical signs of depression include:

• Persistent Sadness: Individuals with depression often experience persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, or hopelessness that endure for most of the day, nearly every day.
• Loss of Interest or Pleasure: A key indication of depression is a diminished interest in or pleasure from once-enjoyable pursuits, such as hobbies, social interactions, or quality time spent with close ones.
• Changes in Sleep Patterns: Insomnia, characterized by difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or hypersomnia, marked by excessive sleeping or difficulty waking up, may occur in individuals with depression.
• Changes in Appetite or Weight: Depression may be accompanied by notable changes in appetite or weight. Some individuals may experience increased appetite and weight gain, while others may have decreased appetite and weight loss.
• Fatigue and Loss of Energy: Fatigue, low energy, and a pervasive feeling of lethargicness that can make it challenging to do daily duties are common symptoms of depression.
• Difficulty Concentrating: Individuals with depression may have trouble concentrating, making decisions, or maintaining focus on tasks, leading to impairments in work, school, or other activities.
• Feelings of Worthlessness or Guilt: Psychological symptoms of depression, such as excessive or unjustified emotions of guilt, self-blame, or worthlessness, are prevalent and can lead to a negative self-image.
• Psychomotor Agitation or Retardation: Some individuals may experience psychomotor agitation, characterized by restlessness, pacing, or fidgeting, while others may exhibit psychomotor retardation, marked by slowed movements and speech.
• Suicidal Thoughts or Behaviors: In severe cases, depression may lead to thoughts of death or suicide. Individuals experiencing suicidal ideation or engaging in self-harming behaviors require immediate intervention and support.
• Physical Symptoms: Depression may be accompanied by physical symptoms, including headaches, stomach issues, and inexplicable aches and pains, which can add to the discomfort and distress.
• Social Withdrawal: Withdrawal from social activities, isolation from friends and family, and avoidance of social interactions are common behavioral manifestations of depression.
• Irritability or Anger: Some individuals with depression may experience irritability, agitation, or unexplained anger, which may manifest as conflicts with others or heightened sensitivity to minor stressors.

Types of Depression

Depression encompasses a spectrum of disorders, each characterized by unique features, durations, and triggers. Understanding the various types of depression is essential for accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment interventions.

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Major depressive disorder, the most common type of depression, is typified by persistent, pervasive feelings of melancholy, hopelessness, and grief. The majority of the time, symptoms are debilitating and persist for two weeks or more.
• Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia): Dysthymia, also known as persistent depressive disorder, involves chronic low mood lasting for two years or more. While the symptoms may be less severe compared to MDD, they persist over an extended period, impacting long-term functioning and quality of life.
• Bipolar Disorder: Episodes of depression characterize bipolar disorder, alternating with periods of elevated mood or mania. Individuals may experience intense depressive episodes followed by manic or hypomanic episodes marked by heightened energy, impulsivity, and euphoria.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Seasonal affective disorder links to changes in seasons, particularly during fall and winter, when daylight hours reduce, making it a subtype of depression. Symptoms typically include low energy, excessive sleep, weight gain, and social withdrawal during winter.
• Postpartum Depression: Postpartum depression affects women following childbirth and characterizes feelings of sadness, anxiety, and exhaustion. Hormonal swings, sleep deprivation, and the difficulties of adjusting to motherhood influence its start.
• Psychotic Depression: Psychotic depression characterizes extreme depression symptoms along with psychotic traits like delusions or hallucinations. People may have warped views of reality, increased anxiety, and diminished understanding of their illness.
• Atypical Depression: Symptoms of atypical depression include increased hunger, weight gain, excessive sleep, hypersensitivity to rejection, and mood reactivity, which is a transient improvement in mood in reaction to positive events.
• Situational Depression: Situational depression arises in response to specific life stressors such as bereavement, relationship issues, job loss, or financial difficulties. While the symptoms may resemble those of MDD, they are directly linked to identifiable stressors and typically resolve with time and support.

Causes and Risk Factors of Depression

Identifying the causes and risk factors is essential for a comprehensive understanding and effective intervention.

1. Biological Factors

• Genetics and Family History: Genetic predisposition plays a significant role in depression. Depression is more common in people who have a family history of the illness, indicating a genetic component. Specific gene variations may increase vulnerability.
• Neurotransmitter Imbalances: Disruptions in neurotransmitter levels, particularly serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, are associated with depressive symptoms. Imbalances in these chemical messengers impact mood regulation and emotional stability.
• Hormonal Changes: Depression can develop as a result of hormonal changes that take place throughout puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Postpartum hormonal shifts particularly link to postpartum depression.

2. Environmental Triggers

• Trauma and Adverse Life Events: Traumatic experiences, such as abuse, neglect, or significant life stressors like loss, divorce, or financial difficulties, can trigger depression. The impact of trauma may be cumulative, influencing mental health over time.
• Chronic Illness and Medical Conditions: Chronic health conditions, pain, or severe illnesses can contribute to depression. The challenges of managing physical health issues can take a toll on mental well-being.
• Substance Abuse: Misuse of drugs and alcohol, as well as other substances, is a significant risk factor for depression. Substance use can exacerbate depressive symptoms and interfere with the effectiveness of treatment.

3. Psychological and Social Factors

• Personality Factors: Depression may be more likely to strike someone with certain personality qualities, such as perfectionism, pessimism, or low self-esteem.
• Cognitive Patterns: Negative thinking patterns, distorted perceptions of oneself and the world, and an inability to cope with stress can contribute to the development and persistence of depressive symptoms.
• Social Isolation and Lack of Support: Social factors, including isolation, a lack of social support, or strained relationships, can contribute to the onset and exacerbation of depression. Strong social connections serve as protective factors.

4. Co-occurring Disorders

• Anxiety Disorders: Depression often coexists with anxiety disorders, and individuals with one condition may be at a higher risk of developing the other.
• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Depression risk is raised in individuals with ADHD, both adults and children.
• Other Mental Health Conditions: Disorders such as eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders can be intertwined with depression, complicating the diagnostic and treatment process.

Effects of Depression

The effects of depression extend far beyond the realm of mental health, permeating various aspects of an individual’s life and overall well-being. Here’s a detailed explanation:

• Impact on Mental Health: Depression profoundly affects mental health, leading to persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and despair. People may suffer from severe emotional distress, which can make it difficult for them to go about their daily lives. Cognitive symptoms such as negative thinking patterns and impaired concentration further exacerbate distress, making it difficult to engage in productive activities or maintain healthy relationships.
• Impact on Physical Health: Depression does not solely confine itself to mental health; it also takes a toll on physical well-being. People who experience long-term stress linked to depression may have weakened immune systems, leaving them more vulnerable to infections and diseases. Additionally, depression is associated with elevated inflammation, which exacerbates several physical health issues like diabetes, heart disease, and persistent pain.
• Social and Interpersonal Consequences: People who suffer from depression may find it difficult to maintain connections or participate in social activities, which can result in social disengagement and isolation. Feelings of shame, stigma, and self-doubt may further isolate individuals, creating a barrier to seeking support. As a result, relationships may become strained, exacerbating feelings of loneliness and exacerbating depressive symptoms.
• Economic Implications: The economic impact of depression is significant, both on individuals and society. Individuals experiencing depression may struggle to maintain employment due to difficulties concentrating, low energy levels, and absenteeism. This can lead to financial instability, unemployment, and economic hardship. Moreover, depression contributes to increased healthcare utilization and costs associated with treatment, further straining healthcare systems and economies.
• Implications for Daily Functioning: Depression can impair various aspects of daily functioning, including work performance, academic achievement, and household responsibilities. Individuals may struggle to meet deadlines, fulfill obligations, or concentrate on tasks, decreasing productivity and efficiency. As a result, performance at work or school may suffer, exacerbating feelings of inadequacy and perpetuating the cycle of depression.
• Risk of Self-harm and Suicide: Perhaps the most severe consequence of untreated depression is the risk of self-harm and suicide. Self-destructive actions are sometimes used as a coping mechanism by people who are going through severe emotional anguish and despair. Suicide risk is heightened in those with depression, emphasizing the critical need for prompt intervention and assistance.

Diagnosis and Assessment of Depression

Accurate diagnosis and comprehensive assessment are crucial steps in effectively managing depression and developing tailored treatment plans. The process involves gathering information about symptoms, identifying potential underlying causes, and evaluating the severity and impact of the condition on the individual’s life. Here’s a breakdown of key components involved in the diagnosis and assessment of depression:

• Clinical Interview: A clinical interview conducted by a mental health professional is the cornerstone of depression assessment. The physician conducts an interview to learn more about the patient’s past depressive episodes, present symptoms, family history of mental health issues, and medical history. The interview provides insight into the onset, duration, and severity of depressive symptoms, as well as any co-occurring conditions or stressors.
• Diagnostic Criteria: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) outlines specific criteria for diagnosing depression, known as major depressive disorder (MDD). Clinicians use particular criteria, such as the presence and duration of symptoms like persistent sadness, loss of interest or joy, changes in appetite or sleep patterns, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal thoughts, to assess whether a patient fits the diagnostic criteria for depression.
• Screening Tools and Questionnaires: Various screening tools and self-report questionnaires are available to assess depressive symptoms and severity. Commonly used instruments include the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D). These tools help quantify the severity of depression and monitor changes in symptoms over time, facilitating treatment planning and evaluation.
• Physical Examination and Laboratory Tests: To rule out underlying medical disorders that could cause or worsen depression symptoms, doctors may do a comprehensive physical exam. Laboratory tests, such as blood tests or thyroid function tests, may be performed to identify any physiological imbalances or medical conditions associated with depression, such as thyroid disorders or vitamin deficiencies.
• Assessment of Functioning: To better understand depression’s effects on day-to-day functioning and quality of life, one can evaluate the person’s performance in various areas, such as employment, school, relationships, and everyday activities. Clinicians evaluate the individual’s ability to perform tasks, maintain relationships, and engage in meaningful activities, identifying areas of impairment and areas of strength.
• Collateral Information: Collateral information from family members, friends, or caregivers may supplement the assessment process, providing additional insight into the individual’s symptoms, behavior, and functioning. Collateral sources can offer valuable perspectives and help corroborate the individual’s self-report, particularly in cases where the severity of depression may limit insight.
• Cultural Considerations: Cultural influences have a big impact on how people experience depression and behave when they seek care. Clinicians should consider cultural beliefs, values, and norms when conducting assessments and formulating treatment plans, ensuring that interventions are culturally sensitive and respectful of the individual’s cultural background and context.
• Differential Diagnosis: Differential diagnosis involves distinguishing depression from other mental health disorders with similar symptoms, such as anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, adjustment disorder, or grief reactions. Clinicians consider the presence of specific features and patterns of symptoms to arrive at an accurate diagnosis and inform treatment decisions.

Treatment Approaches for Depression

Depression is a highly treatable condition, and various approaches, including psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and lifestyle interventions, can effectively alleviate symptoms and promote recovery. Here’s an overview of key treatment approaches for depression:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is one of the most widely used and empirically supported psychotherapeutic approaches for depression. The primary objective is to recognize and confront maladaptive ideas and negative thought patterns that exacerbate symptoms of depression. CBT also teaches individuals coping skills and strategies to modify behaviors and improve mood regulation.
• Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): IPT aims to improve interpersonal functioning and relationships by addressing interpersonal conflicts, role transitions, grief, and social isolation. IPT helps individuals develop healthier relationships and improve their mood by exploring and resolving interpersonal issues.
• Psychodynamic Therapy: Psychodynamic therapy explores unconscious conflicts, early life experiences, and interpersonal dynamics that contribute to depression. By gaining insight into underlying psychological processes and unresolved issues, individuals can achieve emotional awareness and make meaningful life changes.
• Antidepressant Medications: Doctors commonly prescribe antidepressants to alleviate depressive symptoms by targeting neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain. Among the classes of antidepressants utilized include tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). The intensity of the symptoms, the side effect profile, and the patient’s response all influence the pharmaceutical decision.
• Adjunctive Medications: In some cases, adjunctive medications such as mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, or anti-anxiety medications may be prescribed alongside antidepressants to augment their effects, particularly in cases of treatment-resistant depression or when specific symptoms such as anxiety or agitation are prominent.
• Exercise and Physical Activity: Studies have indicated that consistent exercise increases neurotransmitter levels, lowers inflammation, and promotes neurogenesis, all having antidepressant benefits. Exercises that increase heart rate, lower stress levels, and promote general well-being include aerobic training, yoga, and tai chi.
• Mindfulness and Meditation: Mindfulness-based interventions, such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), help individuals cultivate present-moment awareness and acceptance of thoughts and emotions. Meditation practices promote relaxation, reduce rumination, and enhance emotional regulation.
• Nutritional Interventions: Some evidence suggests that dietary modifications, such as increasing consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and magnesium and reducing intake of processed foods and sugar, may have a beneficial impact on mood and mental health. Patients can also use supplemental foods like vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids as adjuvant therapies.
• ECT and TMS: ECT and TMS are non-invasive brain stimulation techniques used in cases of severe, treatment-resistant depression. While TMS employs magnetic fields to activate particular brain regions linked to mood regulation, ECT involves giving electrical currents to the brain while the patient is conscious. Typically, professionals reserve these treatments for individuals who have not responded to other interventions.
• Self-Help and Supportive Interventions: Self-help strategies, such as journaling, relaxation techniques, and engaging in pleasurable activities, can complement formal treatment approaches and empower individuals to manage their symptoms. Through peer support networks, online forums, and support groups, people can connect with others going through similar struggles, exchange experiences, and get support and affirmation.

Strategies for Coping and Management of Depression

Living with depression requires a combination of professional treatment and personal coping strategies. These coping strategies empower individuals to manage their symptoms and improve their overall well-being actively. Here are some real-life tips for coping with and managing depression:

• Building a Support System: Cultivate a support network of friends, family, and trusted individuals who understand your condition and offer non-judgmental support. Communicate openly about your needs, expressing how others can assist you during challenging times. Attend support groups or engage in online communities where individuals share experiences, coping strategies, and encouragement.
• Lifestyle Modifications: Establish a daily routine with regular sleep patterns, balanced meals, and physical activity to promote overall well-being. Prioritize self-care activities, such as mindfulness exercises, warm baths, or hobbies, to increase your satisfaction and relaxation. Consume caffeine, alcohol, and processed meals in moderation, as they might affect mood and energy levels.
• Stress Management Techniques: Develop your knowledge and proficiency with stress-reduction methods like progressive muscle relaxation, guided visualization, and deep breathing exercises. To prevent feeling overwhelmed, make reasonable goals and divide work into smaller, more doable chunks. Explore activities that bring joy and relaxation, such as listening to music, enjoying nature, or practicing creative pursuits.
• Relapse Prevention Strategies: Develop a relapse prevention plan with your mental health professional, outlining early warning signs and coping strategies. Regularly monitor and reflect on your mood, energy levels, and stressors, adjusting self-care practices as needed. Stay connected with your treatment team, even during periods of stability, to address potential challenges proactively.
• Cognitive and Behavioral Techniques: Challenge negative thoughts by identifying and disputing irrational beliefs. Positive and realistic affirmations should take the place of negative self-talk. Practice behavioral activation by engaging in activities that bring a sense of accomplishment and pleasure, even when motivation is low. Use a mood journal to track daily activities, thoughts, and emotions, identifying patterns and recognizing triggers.
• Holistic Approaches: Explore alternative therapies such as acupuncture, massage, or yoga to complement traditional treatments and promote relaxation. To develop present-moment awareness, incorporate mindfulness exercises into your everyday routine, such as mindful breathing or mindful walking. Consider the role of spirituality or religious practices in providing a sense of purpose, connection, and comfort.
• Professional Guidance: Attend regular therapy sessions and actively engage in the therapeutic process, discussing concerns, progress, and setbacks openly. Collaborate with your mental health professional to explore and tailor treatment options, adjusting interventions as needed. Be proactive in seeking help during difficult periods, recognizing that reaching out for support is a sign of strength.

Real-Life Examples

Here are real-life examples of individuals who faced depression and fought back:

• Emily’s Triumph Over Depression: Emily, a 30-year-old teacher, experienced severe depression following the loss of her job and the end of a long-term relationship. She struggled with overwhelming sadness, low self-esteem, and thoughts of suicide. Determined to overcome her depression, Emily sought therapy and enrolled in group counseling sessions. Through therapy, Emily learned coping skills, challenged negative thought patterns, and built a support network of friends and family. With perseverance and professional support, Emily regained her confidence, found a new job, and reconnected with her passion for teaching.
• Michael’s Resilience Against Major Depressive Disorder: Michael, a 40-year-old software engineer, faced a major depressive episode triggered by chronic stress at work and strained relationships. He experienced profound feelings of despair, loss of interest in activities, and persistent fatigue. Despite the challenges, Michael reached out to a psychiatrist and started medication along with therapy sessions. He committed to regular exercise and mindfulness practices, which helped alleviate his symptoms. Through perseverance and a strong support system, Michael successfully managed his depression, repaired relationships, and found renewed purpose in his career.
• Sophie’s Journey to Recovery from Postpartum Depression: Sophie, a 35-year-old mother of twins, struggled with postpartum depression after the birth of her children. She experienced overwhelming guilt, anxiety, and difficulty bonding with her babies. Sophie sought help from her healthcare provider and joined a postpartum support group where she connected with other mothers facing similar challenges. With the support of therapy and medication, Sophie learned to prioritize self-care, set realistic expectations, and accept help from loved ones. Over time, Sophie’s symptoms improved, and she formed strong emotional bonds with her children, embracing motherhood with confidence and joy.
• David’s Triumph Over Bipolar Depression: David, a 50-year-old business owner, faced bipolar depression characterized by alternating periods of intense sadness and manic episodes. His condition significantly impacted his business and strained his relationships with family and friends. David sought comprehensive treatment, including medication, psychotherapy, and lifestyle changes. With the support of his treatment team and loved ones, David learned to recognize early warning signs of mood swings, manage stress, and prioritize self-care. Despite setbacks, David remained resilient and committed to his recovery journey, ultimately regaining stability in his personal and professional life.

Breaking the Stigma Surrounding Depression

The stigma surrounding depression and mental illness persists despite increased awareness and advocacy efforts. Stigma refers to negative attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes that contribute to discrimination, prejudice, and social exclusion of individuals with mental health conditions. Breaking the stigma surrounding depression is essential for promoting understanding, empathy, and access to effective treatment and support. Here’s a detailed exploration of strategies for combating stigma:

• Education and Awareness: Education is a powerful tool for challenging misconceptions and dispelling myths about depression. Accurate knowledge of depression’s causes, signs, and available treatments can promote understanding and lessen stigma and fear. Promoting empathy and compassion is mostly dependent on media representations of mental illness, public awareness efforts, and educational programs.
• Challenging Stereotypes and Misconceptions: Challenging stereotypes and misconceptions about depression involves confronting negative attitudes and beliefs that perpetuate stigma. Emphasizing that depression is a medical condition, not a personal weakness or character flaw, helps counteract blame and judgment. Highlighting the diverse experiences of individuals living with depression promotes empathy and encourages open dialogue.
• Promoting Open Dialogue and Disclosure: Encouraging open discourse about depression fosters a safe and supportive environment where people may share their experiences, challenges, and accomplishments. Normalizing conversations about mental health reduces shame and secrecy, empowering individuals to seek help and support without fear of judgment or discrimination. Role models and public figures who speak openly about their experiences with depression help reduce stigma and inspire others to seek help.
• Humanizing the Experience of Depression: Humanizing the experience of depression involves recognizing the individual behind the diagnosis and acknowledging the complexity of mental illness. Sharing personal stories, experiences, and perspectives humanizes the impact of depression, emphasizing that it can affect anyone regardless of age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Encouraging empathy, compassion, and solidarity fosters a sense of community and support.
• Addressing Structural and Systemic Barriers: Addressing structural and systemic barriers to mental health care is essential for ensuring equitable access to treatment and support. Advocating for policies and practices that prioritize mental health parity, reduce stigma, and improve access to affordable, culturally competent care helps address disparities in mental health services. Investing in community-based resources, crisis intervention services, and early intervention programs promotes resilience and recovery.
• Empowering Individuals and Communities: Empowering individuals and communities to advocate for their mental health rights and needs is essential for challenging systemic inequities and promoting social change. Providing opportunities for peer support, self-advocacy, and community engagement enables individuals to become agents of change and champions for mental health awareness and acceptance.
• Cultivating Inclusive and Supportive Environments: Cultivating inclusive and supportive environments involves creating spaces where individuals feel accepted, valued, and respected regardless of their mental health status. Fostering a culture of acceptance, empathy, and inclusion promotes mental health and well-being for all members of society. Organizations, workplaces, schools, and communities can implement policies and practices that promote mental health literacy, foster resilience, and prevent discrimination.

Depression is a multifaceted mental health challenge that demands comprehensive understanding, compassion, and effective intervention. Its pervasive impact extends beyond individual suffering, affecting relationships, work, and daily functioning. Through tailored treatment approaches, including therapy, medication, and lifestyle modifications, individuals can find hope and healing on their journey toward recovery. Real-life examples underscore the resilience and courage of those facing depression, inspiring others to seek support and advocate for mental health awareness. We can build a world where people feel empowered to tackle sadness and embrace life with fresh vigor and purpose if we continue to destigmatize it, prioritize mental well-being, encourage empathy, and provide support.

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Great Depression History

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 20, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in modern history, lasting from 1929 until the beginning of World War II in 1939. The causes of the Great Depression included slowing consumer demand, mounting consumer debt, decreased industrial production and the rapid and reckless expansion of the U.S. stock market. When the stock market crashed in October 1929, it triggered a crisis in the international economy, which was linked via the gold standard. A rash of bank failures followed in 1930, and as the Dust Bowl increased the number of farm foreclosures, unemployment topped 20 percent by 1933. Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to stimulate the economy with a range of incentives including Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, but ultimately it took the manufacturing production increases of World War II to end the Great Depression.

What Caused the Great Depression?

Throughout the 1920s, the U.S. economy expanded rapidly, and the nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, a period dubbed “ the Roaring Twenties .”

The stock market, centered at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City , was the scene of reckless speculation, where everyone from millionaire tycoons to cooks and janitors poured their savings into stocks. As a result, the stock market underwent rapid expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929.

By then, production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stock prices much higher than their actual value. Additionally, wages at that time were low, consumer debt was proliferating, the agricultural sector of the economy was struggling due to drought and falling food prices and banks had an excess of large loans that could not be liquidated.

The American economy entered a mild recession during the summer of 1929, as consumer spending slowed and unsold goods began to pile up, which in turn slowed factory production. Nonetheless, stock prices continued to rise, and by the fall of that year had reached stratospheric levels that could not be justified by expected future earnings.

Stock Market Crash of 1929

On October 24, 1929, as nervous investors began selling overpriced shares en masse, the stock market crash that some had feared happened at last. A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as “Black Thursday.”

Five days later, on October 29, or “Black Tuesday,” some 16 million shares were traded after another wave of panic swept Wall Street. Millions of shares ended up worthless, and those investors who had bought stocks “on margin” (with borrowed money) were wiped out completely.

As consumer confidence vanished in the wake of the stock market crash, the downturn in spending and investment led factories and other businesses to slow down production and begin firing their workers. For those who were lucky enough to remain employed, wages fell and buying power decreased.

Many Americans forced to buy on credit fell into debt, and the number of foreclosures and repossessions climbed steadily. The global adherence to the gold standard , which joined countries around the world in fixed currency exchange, helped spread economic woes from the United States throughout the world, especially in Europe.

Bank Runs and the Hoover Administration

Despite assurances from President Herbert Hoover and other leaders that the crisis would run its course, matters continued to get worse over the next three years. By 1930, 4 million Americans looking for work could not find it; that number had risen to 6 million in 1931.

Meanwhile, the country’s industrial production had dropped by half. Bread lines, soup kitchens and rising numbers of homeless people became more and more common in America’s towns and cities. Farmers couldn’t afford to harvest their crops and were forced to leave them rotting in the fields while people elsewhere starved. In 1930, severe droughts in the Southern Plains brought high winds and dust from Texas to Nebraska, killing people, livestock and crops. The “ Dust Bowl ” inspired a mass migration of people from farmland to cities in search of work.

In the fall of 1930, the first of four waves of banking panics began, as large numbers of investors lost confidence in the solvency of their banks and demanded deposits in cash, forcing banks to liquidate loans in order to supplement their insufficient cash reserves on hand.

Bank runs swept the United States again in the spring and fall of 1931 and the fall of 1932, and by early 1933 thousands of banks had closed their doors.

In the face of this dire situation, Hoover’s administration tried supporting failing banks and other institutions with government loans; the idea was that the banks in turn would loan to businesses, which would be able to hire back their employees.

FDR and the Great Depression

Hoover, a Republican who had formerly served as U.S. secretary of commerce, believed that government should not directly intervene in the economy and that it did not have the responsibility to create jobs or provide economic relief for its citizens.

In 1932, however, with the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression and some 15 million people unemployed, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won an overwhelming victory in the presidential election.

By Inauguration Day (March 4, 1933), every U.S. state had ordered all remaining banks to close at the end of the fourth wave of banking panics, and the U.S. Treasury didn’t have enough cash to pay all government workers. Nonetheless, FDR (as he was known) projected a calm energy and optimism, famously declaring "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Roosevelt took immediate action to address the country’s economic woes, first announcing a four-day “bank holiday” during which all banks would close so that Congress could pass reform legislation and reopen those banks determined to be sound. He also began addressing the public directly over the radio in a series of talks, and these so-called “ fireside chats ” went a long way toward restoring public confidence.

During Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office, his administration passed legislation that aimed to stabilize industrial and agricultural production, create jobs and stimulate recovery.

In addition, Roosevelt sought to reform the financial system, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ( FDIC ) to protect depositors’ accounts and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market and prevent abuses of the kind that led to the 1929 crash.

The New Deal: A Road to Recovery

Among the programs and institutions of the New Deal that aided in recovery from the Great Depression was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) , which built dams and hydroelectric projects to control flooding and provide electric power to the impoverished Tennessee Valley region, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) , a permanent jobs program that employed 8.5 million people from 1935 to 1943.

When the Great Depression began, the United States was the only industrialized country in the world without some form of unemployment insurance or social security. In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act , which for the first time provided Americans with unemployment, disability and pensions for old age.

After showing early signs of recovery beginning in the spring of 1933, the economy continued to improve throughout the next three years, during which real GDP (adjusted for inflation) grew at an average rate of 9 percent per year.

A sharp recession hit in 1937, caused in part by the Federal Reserve’s decision to increase its requirements for money in reserve. Though the economy began improving again in 1938, this second severe contraction reversed many of the gains in production and employment and prolonged the effects of the Great Depression through the end of the decade.

Depression-era hardships fueled the rise of extremist political movements in various European countries, most notably that of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany. German aggression led war to break out in Europe in 1939, and the WPA turned its attention to strengthening the military infrastructure of the United States, even as the country maintained its neutrality.

African Americans in the Great Depression

One-fifth of all Americans receiving federal relief during the Great Depression were Black, most in the rural South. But farm and domestic work, two major sectors in which Black workers were employed, were not included in the 1935 Social Security Act, meaning there was no safety net in times of uncertainty. Rather than fire domestic help, private employers could simply pay them less without legal repercussions. And those relief programs for which African Americans were eligible on paper were rife with discrimination in practice since all relief programs were administered locally.

5 Causes of the Great Depression

By 1929, a perfect storm of unlucky factors led to the start of the worst economic downturn in U.S. history.

How Bank Failures Contributed to the Great Depression

Were financial institutions victims—or culprits?

9 New Deal Infrastructure Projects That Changed America

The Hoover Dam, LaGuardia Airport and the Bay Bridge were all part of FDR's New Deal investment.

Despite these obstacles, Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet,” led by Mary McLeod Bethune , ensured nearly every New Deal agency had a Black advisor. The number of African Americans working in government tripled .

Women in the Great Depression

There was one group of Americans who actually gained jobs during the Great Depression: Women. From 1930 to 1940, the number of employed women in the United States rose 24 percent from 10.5 million to 13 million Though they’d been steadily entering the workforce for decades, the financial pressures of the Great Depression drove women to seek employment in ever greater numbers as male breadwinners lost their jobs. The 22 percent decline in marriage rates between 1929 and 1939 also created an increase in single women in search of employment.

Women during the Great Depression had a strong advocate in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , who lobbied her husband for more women in office—like Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins , the first woman to ever hold a cabinet position.

Jobs available to women paid less but were more stable during the banking crisis: nursing, teaching and domestic work. They were supplanted by an increase in secretarial roles in FDR’s rapidly-expanding government. But there was a catch: over 25 percent of the National Recovery Administration’s wage codes set lower wages for women, and jobs created under the WPA confined women to fields like sewing and nursing that paid less than roles reserved for men.

Married women faced an additional hurdle: By 1940, 26 states had placed restrictions known as marriage bars on their employment, as working wives were perceived as taking away jobs from able-bodied men—even if, in practice, they were occupying jobs men would not want and doing them for far less pay.

Great Depression Ends and World War II Begins

With Roosevelt’s decision to support Britain and France in the struggle against Germany and the other Axis Powers, defense manufacturing geared up, producing more and more private-sector jobs.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 led to America’s entry into World War II, and the nation’s factories went back into full production mode.

This expanding industrial production, as well as widespread conscription beginning in 1942, reduced the unemployment rate to below its pre-Depression level. The Great Depression had ended at last, and the United States turned its attention to the global conflict of World War II.

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Course: US history   >   Unit 7

• The presidency of Herbert Hoover

The Great Depression

• FDR and the Great Depression
• The New Deal

• The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in US history. It began in 1929 and did not abate until the end of the 1930s.
• The stock market crash of October 1929 signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. By 1933, unemployment was at 25 percent and more than 5,000 banks had gone out of business.
• Although President Herbert Hoover attempted to spark growth in the economy through measures like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, these measures did little to solve the crisis.
• Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in November 1932. Inaugurated as president in March 1933, Roosevelt’s New Deal offered a new approach to the Great Depression.

The stock market crash of 1929

Hoover's response to the crisis, what do you think.

• David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 37-41, 49-50.
• T.H. Watkins, The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America (New York: Henry Holt, 1999), 44-45; Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 87.
• Louise Armstrong, We Too Are the People (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1938), 10.
• On bank failures, see Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 65.
• See Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 87, 208; Robert S. McElvaine, ed., Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the “Forgotten Man” (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 81-94.
• John A. Garraty, The Great Depression: An Inquiry into the Causes, Course, and Consequences of the Worldwide Depression of the Nineteen-Thirties, as Seen by Contemporaries and in the Light of History (New York: Doubleday, 1987).
• Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 83-85.
• On Hoovervilles and Hoover flags, Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 91.

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• Health topics /

Depression is a common illness characterized by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that one normally enjoys, accompanied by an inability to carry out daily activities, for at least two weeks. Other symptoms include loss of energy; change in appetite; sleeping more/less; anxiety; reduced concentration; indecisiveness; restlessness; feelings of worthlessness, guilt or hopelessness; and thoughts of self-harm or even committing suicide.

Depression has multiple risk factors - biological (genetic, chronic diseases, terminal illness), psychological, social (familial, relationships, violence, disasters), cultural (religion, caste, beliefs, attitudes), economic etc. Consumption of alcohol and drugs can further aggravate the condition. Depending on the number and severity of symptoms, it can be categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. Effective treatment options are available.  

Globally, the total number of people with depression was estimated to exceed 300 million in 2015, equivalent to 4.3% of the world’s population. In India, the National Mental Health Survey 2015-16 revealed that nearly 15% Indian adults need active intervention for one or more mental health issues and one in 20 Indians suffers from depression. It is estimated that in 2012, India had over 258 000 suicides, with the age-group of 15-49 years being most affected.

Depression is ranked as the single largest contributor to global disability (7.5% of all years lived with disability in 2015). At its worst, depression can lead to suicide; over 800 000 people die due to suicide every year. It is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.

Although there are known, effective treatments for depression, fewer than half of those affected in the world (in many countries, fewer than 10%) receive such treatments. Barriers to effective care include a lack of resources, lack of trained health-care providers, and social stigma associated with mental disorders. Another barrier to effective care is inaccurate assessment.

Prevention programmes have been shown to reduce depression. Effective community approaches to prevent depression include school-based programmes to enhance a pattern of positive thinking in children and adolescents.

Government of India’s commitment is reflected in the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), which encompasses life-skills training and counselling in educational institutions, workplace stress management and suicide prevention services, among others. At the primary care level, the Health and Wellness Centres under the Ayushman Bharat program have a provision for mental healthcare services.

Technical links

Mental health

• Depressive disorder (depression)
• Mental disorders
• Mental health: strengthening our response
• Mental Health ATLAS 2017 Member State Profile
• Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders
• National Mental Health Survey of India, 2015-16
• National Mental Health Policy, 2014
• Mental Healthcare Act, 2017
• National Mental Health Programme
• Manual of Mental Health for Social Workers
• Mental health: responding to the call for action (WHA 55.10)

Publications

Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2020

Preventing suicide: A global imperative

I had a black dog, his name was depression

Living with a black dog

WHO: Recovering from mental illness with dignity

"Depression: let’s talk" says WHO, as depression tops list of causes of ill health

Technical resources

Resources on depression

Living with someone with depression?

Worried that your child is depressed?

Worried about the future? Preventing depression during your teens and twenties

Wondering why your new baby is not making you happy?

Staying positive and preventing depression as you get older

Do you know someone who may be considering suicide?

Do you feel like life is not worth living?

WHO behavioural intervention shows promise for treating depression and anxiety in conflict-affected areas

Related health topics

Noncommunicable diseases

327 Depression Essay Titles & Examples

When choosing a title about depression, you have to remain mindful since this is a sensitive subject. This is why our experts have listed 177 depression essay topics to help you get started.

🌧️ How to Write a Depression Essay: Do’s and Don’ts

🏆 unique titles about depression, 🥇 most interesting depression title ideas, 📌 good titles for depression essay, ✅ simple & easy depression essay titles, 🎓 interesting topics to write about depression, 📑 good research topics about depression.

• ❓ Research Questions for a Depression Essay

Depression is a disorder characterized by prolonged periods of sadness and loss of interest in life. The symptoms include irritability, insomnia, anxiety, and trouble concentrating. This disorder can produce physical problems, self-esteem issues, and general stress in a person’s life. Difficult life events and trauma are typical causes of depression. Want to find out more? Check out our compilation below.

A depression essay is an important assignment that will help you to explore the subject and its impact on people. Writing this type of paper may seem challenging at first, but there are some secrets that will make achieving a high grade much easier. Check below for a list of do’s and don’ts to get started!

DO select a narrow topic. Before starting writing, define the subject of the paper, and write down some possible titles. This will help you to focus your thoughts instead of offering generic information that can easily be found on Wikipedia. Consider writing about a particular population or about the consequences of depression. For example, a teenage depression essay could earn you excellent marks! If you find this step challenging, try searching for depression essay topics online. This will surely give you some inspiration.

DON’T copy from peers or other students. Today, tutors are usually aware of the power of the Internet and will check your paper for plagiarism. Hence, if you copy information from other depression essays, you could lose a lot of marks. You could search for depression essay titles or sample papers online, but avoid copying any details from these sources.

DO your research before starting. High-quality research is crucial when you write essays on mental health issues. There are plenty of online resources that could help you, including Google Scholar, PubMed, and others. To find relevant scientific articles, search for your primary and secondary topics of interest. Then filter results by relevance, publication date, and access type. This will help you to identify sources that you can view online and use to support your ideas.

DON’T rely on unverified sources. This is a crucial mistake many students make that usually results in failing the paper. Sources that are not academic, such as websites, blogs, and Wiki pages, may contain false or outdated information. Some exceptions are official publications and web pages of medical organizations, such as the CDC, APA, and the World Health Organization.

DO consider related health issues. Depression is often associated with other mental or physical health issues, so you should reflect on this in your paper. Some examples of problems related to depression are suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and panic attack disorder. To show your in-depth understanding of the issue, you could write a depression and anxiety essay that shows the relationship between the two. Alternatively, you can devote one or two paragraphs to examining the prevalence of other mental health problems in people with depression.

DON’T include personal opinions and experiences unless required. A good essay on the subject of depression should be focused and objective. Hence, you should rely on research rather than on your understanding of the theme. For example, if you have to answer the question “What is depression?” look for scientific articles or official publications that contain the definition rather than trying to explain it in your own words.

DON’T forget about structure. The structure of your essay helps to present arguments or points logically, thus assisting the reader in making sense of the information. A good thing to do is to write a depression essay outline before you start the paper. You should list your key points supported by relevant depression quotes from academic publications. Follow the outline carefully to avoid gaps and inconsistencies.

Use these do’s and don’ts, and you will be able to write an excellent paper on depression! If you want to see more tips and tricks that will help you elevate your writing, look around our website!

• Understanding Teen Depression Impacts of depression on teenagers Depression is characterized by several effects; however, most of them impact negatively to the teens. For instance, a considerable percentage of teens use extra-curriculum activities such as sports and games, […]
• Beck Depression Inventory, Its History and Benefits Therefore, the detection of depression at its early stage, the evaluation of the risks, and the definition of the level of depression are the main goals.
• Health Promotion: Depression Awareness in Teenagers In addition to community sensitization and promoting the expression of melancholic emotions by adolescents, the DAP program will include depression screening days in schools.
• Report Writing About Depression There is concrete evidence that many people in Australia tend to believe that depression is the cause of all suicide deaths in the world, but this not true.
• Effect of Social Media on Depression The number of friends that the participants of the mock study had in their social sites was also related to the degree of depression that they experienced.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Treating Depression CBT works on the principle that positive thoughts and behaviour heralds positive moods and this is something that can be learned; therefore, by learning to think and behave positively, someone may substitute negative thoughts with […]
• Anxiety and Depression Among College Students The central hypothesis for this study is that college students have a higher rate of anxiety and depression. Some of the materials to be used in the study will include pencils, papers, and tests.
• Emotional Wellness: The Issue of Depression Through Different Lenses As for the humanities lens, the increasing prevalence of depression causes the institution of religion to incorporate the issue into major confessions’ mindsets and messages.
• Depression in the Lens of History and Humanities In terms of history, this paper analyzes the origin of depression and the progress made over the years in finding treatment and preventive mechanisms.
• Depression, Grief, Loss in “Ordinary People” Film The coach is curious to know Conrad’s experiences at the hospital and the use of ECT. Towards the end of the film, Conrad reveals to the therapist that he feels guilty about his brother’s death.
• Depression in Older Adults The understanding and modification of the contributions of these factors is the ultimate goal of the clinicians who engage in the treatment of depression.
• The Problem of Childhood Depression Thus, it is essential to explore the reasons for the disease and possible ways to treat depression in kids. In kids, the prevention of depression is fundamental to understanding the cause of the poor mood […]
• Depression and Melancholia Expressed by Hamlet The paper will not attempt and sketch the way the signs or symptoms of depression/melancholia play a part in the way Shakespeare’s period or culture concerning depression/melancholia, but in its place portrays the way particular […]
• Depression in Adolescence and Treatment Approaches The age of adolescence, commonly referred to as children aged 10-19, is characterized by a variety of changes to one’s physical and mental health, as the child undergoes several stages of adjustment to the environment […]
• Anxiety and Depression: The Case Study As he himself explained, he is not used to positive affirmation due to low self-esteem, and his family experiences also point to the fact that he was not comforted often as a child.
• Psychological Measures: The Beck Depression Inventory The BDI is used to evaluate levels of depression in patients and to observe the efficacy of other interventions such as antidepressants and electroconvulsive therapy.
• Organizational Behaviour: Depression in the Workplace This paper will examine the impacts of depression on the employees’ work performance and attendance and look at how managers can deal with hidden depression in such employees. The particular factors that bring about such […]
• Depression in female adolescents This technique differentiates between those characteristics that are considered normal by the society in relation to female adolescent and those that are peculiar which are symptoms of depression. However, there are side effects related to […]
• Social Networking and Depression The findings of the study confirmed that once an individual engages in social networking, his or her feeling of safety goes down and depression mood emerges meaning that a correlation between depression and social networking […]
• The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) Measure The author of the article on “Depression in Children: Children’s Depression Inventory” has used both the classical test score and generalizability theories.
• Using the Neuman Model in the Early Diagnosis of Depression In the history of the academic development of nursing theories, there are a variety of iconic figures who have made significant contributions to the evolution of the discipline: one of them is Betty Neuman.
• The Beck Depression Contrast (BDI) The second difference between the two modes of the BDI is in the methodology of conducting the survey. This is where the interviewer first gets the history of the patient to try and get the […]
• Depression and Anxiety Due to School and Work-Related Stress Many young students are not aware of the roots of their psychological problems and continue suffering from depression or anxiety, which results in low productivity, poor achievements, and a decreased quality of life.
• Depression and Grief in the “Ordinary People” Film At the end of the film, he is healed and ready to forgive his mother and stop blaming himself. I believe that the relationship between Conrad and his therapist, Dr.
• Beck Depression Inventory: Evaluation Plan Reliability test Pretest and posttest scores from a nonclinical sample of respondents screened a week apart will be compared to determine the reliability of the tool for use in a longitudinal study.
• Beck Depression Inventory in Psychological Practice Beck in the 1990s, the theory disrupted the traditional flow of Freudian theories development and introduced the audience to the concept of cognitive development, therefore, inviting psychologists to interpret the changes in the patient’s emotional […]
• Depression Symptoms and Cognitive Behavior Therapy The tone of the article is informative and objective, throughout the text the authors maintain an academic and scientific mood. The structure of the article is well organized and easy to read.
• Proposal on Depression in Middle-Aged Women By understand the aspect of unhappiness among the young women; it will be easier for the healthcare institutions to formulate effective and appropriate approaches to reduce the menace in the society.
• Biological Psychology: Lesion Studies and Depression Detection The purpose of this article is to share the research findings and discussion on the new methodological developments of Lesion studies.
• Using AI to Diagnose and Treat Depression One of the main features of AI is the ability to machine learning, that is, to use data from past experiences to learn and modify algorithms in the future.
• Artificial Intelligence Bot for Depression By increasing the availability and accessibility of mental health services, these technologies may also contribute to the development of cognitive science practices in Malaysia.
• COVID-Related Depression: Lingering Signs of Depression The purpose of the article is to depict the research in a more approachable way, while the latter accentuates the importance of various factors and flaws of the results. While the former is more simplified, […]
• Depression and Anxiety Among African Americans Finally, it should be insightful to understand the attitudes of friends and family members, so 5 additional interviews will be conducted with Black and White persons not having the identified mental conditions. The selected mental […]
• Depression in Dialysis Patients: Treatment and Management If I were to conduct experimental research about the treatment and management of depression in dialysis patients, I would focus on finding the most effective and safe medication for the condition among adults.
• The Serotonin Theory of Depression by Moncrieff et al. The serotonin theory of depression is closely related to antidepressants since the advent of SSRIs played a significant role in the popularization of the theory.
• Avery’s Depression in “The Flick” Play by Baker The emotional and mental state of Avery, the only African-American character out of the three, is fairly obvious from the get-go when asked about why he is so depressed, the answer is: “Um.
• Depression: A Quantitative-Qualitative Analysis A decision tree can be used due to the nature of the research question or hypothesis in place, the measurement of the dependent or research variable, the number of groups or independent variable levels, and […]
• Depression Detection Tests Analysis The problem of the abundance of psychological tests leads to the need to compare multiple testing options for indicators of their purpose, features, and interpretations of the evaluation and validity.
• Nursing Care for Patients With COVID-19 & Depression The significance of the selected problem contributed to the emergence of numerous research works devoted to the issue. This approach to choosing individuals guaranteed the increased credibility of findings and provided the authors with the […]
• 16 Personality Factors Test for Depression Patient Pablos results, it is necessary to understand the interaction and pattern of the scores of the primary factors. A combination of high Apprehension and high Self-Reliance is a pattern describing a tendency to isolate oneself.
• Depression in a 30-Year-Old Female Client In the given case, it would be useful to identify the patterns in Alex’s relationships and reconsider her responses to her partner.
• Depression in Primary Care: Screening and Diagnosis The clinical topics for this research are the incidence of depression in young adults and how to diagnose this disorder early in the primary care setting using screening tools such as PHQ9.
• Major Depression and Cognitive Behavior Therapy Since the intervention had no significant effect on Lola, the paper will explore the physical health implication of anxiolytics and antidepressants in adolescents, including the teaching strategies that nurses can utilize on consumers to recognize […]
• Jungian Psychotherapy for Depression and Anxiety They work as a pizza delivery man in their spare time from scientific activities, and their parents also send them a small amount of money every month.S.migrated to New York not only to get an […]
• COVID-19 and Depression: The Impact of Nursing Care and Technology Nevertheless, combatting depression is a crucial step in posing positive achievements to recover from mental and physical wellness caused by COVID-19.
• Depression Disorder Intervention The researchers evaluated the socioemotional signs of mental illnesses in a sample of diagnostically referred adolescents with clinical depression required to undergo regular cognitive behavioral therapy in a medical setting.
• Financial Difficulties in Childhood and Adult Depression in Europe The authors found that the existence of closer ties between the catalyst of depression and the person suffering from depression leads to worse consequences.
• Activity During Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression Studies have shown that women’s mood and cardiorespiratory fitness improve when they engage in moderate-intensity physical activity in the weeks and months after giving birth to a child.
• Clinical Depression: Causes and Development Therefore, according to Aaron Beck, the causes and development of depression can be explained through the concepts of schema and negative cognitive triad.
• Aspects of Working With Depression It also contributes to the maintenance and rooting of a bad mood, as the patient has sad thoughts due to the fact that the usual does not cause satisfaction.
• Depression Among Nurses in COVID-19 Wards The findings are of great significance to researchers and governments and can indicate the prevalence of anxiety and depression among nurses working in COVID-19 wards in the North-East of England during the pandemic.
• Depression Associated With Sleep Disorders Y, Chang, C. Consequently, it directly affects the manifestation of obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and periodic limb movement disorder in people with depression.
• Depression in a 25-Year-Old Male Patient Moreover, a person in depression complains of the slowness in mental processes, notes the oppression of instincts, the loss of the instinct of self-preservation, and the lack of the ability to enjoy life.
• Aspects and Manifestation of Depression Although, symptoms of depression in young people, in contrast to older adults, are described by psychomotor agitation or lethargy, fatigue, and loss of energy.
• Complementary Therapy for Postpartum Depression in Primary Care Thus, the woman faced frustration and sadness, preventing her from taking good care of the child, and the lack of support led to the emergence of concerns similar to those in the past.
• Depression and Anxiety Clinical Case Many of the factors come from the background and life experiences of the patient. The client then had a chance to reflect on the results and think of the possible alternative thoughts.
• Uncontrolled Type 2 Diabetes and Depression Treatment The data synthesis demonstrates that carefully chosen depression and anxiety treatment is likely to result in better A1C outcomes for the patient on the condition that the treatment is regular and convenient for the patients.
• Technology to Fight Postpartum Depression in African American Women I would like to introduce the app “Peanut” the social network designed to help and unite women exclusively, as a technology aimed at fighting postpartum depression in African American Women.
• Complementary Therapy in Treatment of Depression Such practices lower the general level of anxiety and remove the high risks of manifestation of states of abulia, that is, clinical lack of will and acute depression.
• Social Determinants of Health and Depression Among African American Adults The article “Social Determinants of Health and Depression among African American Adults: A Scoping Review of Current Research” examines the current research on the relationship between social determinants of health and depression among African American […]
• Outcomes Exercise Has on Depression for People Between 45-55 Years According to the WHO, the rate of depression in the U.S.was 31. 5% as of October 2021, with the majority of the victims being adults aged between 45 and 55 years.
• The Postpartum Depression in Afro-Americans Policy The distribution of the funds is managed and administered on the state level. Minnesota and Maryland focused on passing the legislation regulating the adoption of Medicaid in 2013.
• Case Study of Depression and Mental Pressure Alison believes that her illness is severe and taking a toll all the time, and the environment is worsening the condition.
• Depression Among the Medicare Population in Maryland The statistics about the prevalence and comorbidity rates of depression are provided from the Medicare Chronic Conditions Dashboard and are portrayed in the table included in the paper.
• Depression as Public Health Population-Based Issue In regard to particular races and ethnicities, CDC provided the following breakdown of female breast cancer cases and deaths: White women: 128 new cases and 20 deaths per 100.
• Managing Mental Health Medications for Depression and its Ethical Contradiction The second objective is to discover ethical contradictions in such treatment for people of various cultures and how different people perceive the disorder and react to the medication.
• Aspects of Depression and Obesity In some cases, people with mild to severe depression choose not to seek professional care and instead try to overcome their depression with self-help or the support of family and friends.
• Antidepressant Treatment of Adolescent Depression At the same time, scientists evidenced that in the case of negative exposure to stress and depression, the human organism diminishes BDNF expression in the hippocampus.
• Online Peer Support Groups for Depression and Anxiety Disorder The main objective of peer support groups is connecting people with the same life experiences and challenges to share and support each other in healing and recovery.
• Emotional Encounter With a Patient With Major Depression Disorder I shared this idea with him and was trying to create the treatment plan, sharing some general thoughts on the issue.
• Childhood Depression in Sub-Saharan Africa According to Sterling et al, depression in early childhood places a significant load on individuals, relatives, and society by increasing hospitalization and fatality and negatively impacting the quality of life during periods of severe depression.
• Breastfeeding and Risk of Postpartum Depression The primary goal of the research conducted by Islam et al.was to analyze the correlation between exclusive breastfeeding and the risk of postpartum depression among new mothers.
• Nursing Intervention in Case of Severe Depression The patient was laid off from work and went through a divorce in the year. This led to a change in prescribed medications, and the patient was put on tricyclic anti-depressants.
• Screening for Depression in Acute Care The literature review provides EB analysis for the topic of depression to identify the need for an appropriate screening tool in addition to the PHQ-9 in the assessment evaluation process.
• Social Media Use and the Risk of Depression Thapa and Subedi explain that the reason for the development of depressive symptoms is the lack of face to face conversation and the development of perceived isolation. Is there a relationship between social media use […]
• Depression in the Field of a Healthcare Administrator According to Davey and Harrison, the most challenging part of healthcare administration in terms of depression is the presence of distorted views, shaped by patients’ thoughts.
• The Treatment of Adolescents With Depression While treating a teenager with depression, it is important to maintain the link between the cause of the mental illness’ progression and the treatment.
• Depression in the Black Community The speaker said that her counselor was culturally sensitive, which presumes that regardless of the race one belongs to, a specialist must value their background.
• Loneliness and Depression During COVID-19 While the article discusses the prevalence of loneliness and depression among young people, I agree that young people may be more subject to mental health problems than other population groups, but I do not agree […]
• Depression Screening in the Acute Setting Hence, it is possible to develop a policy recommending the use of the PHQ-9, such as the EBDST, in the acute setting.
• Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression: Neurobiology and Applications It is known that a violation of the functions of the serotonergic pathways leads to various mental deviations, the most typical of which is clinical depression.
• Treating Obesity Co-Occurring With Depression In most cases, the efficiency of obesity treatment is relatively low and commonly leads to the appearance of a comorbid mental health disorder depression.
• Treadmill Exercise Ameliorates Social Isolation-Induced Depression The groups included: the social isolation group, the control group, and the exercise and social isolation and exercise group. In the treadmill exercise protocol, the rat pups ran on the treadmill once a day for […]
• Depression and Anxiety Among Chronic Pain Patients The researchers used The Depression Module of the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale to interview participants, evaluate their answers, and conduct the study.
• The Difference Between Art Deco and Depression Modern Design By and whole, Art Deco and Depression differ in their characteristics and their meanings as they bring unlike messages to the viewers.
• Postpartum Depression in African American Women As far as African American women are concerned, the issue becomes even more complex due to several reasons: the stigma associated with the mental health of African American women and the mental health complications that […]
• The Depression Construct and Instrument Analysis For the therapist, this scaling allows to assess the general picture of the patient’s psychological state and obtain a result that is suitable for measurement.
• The Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on Depression in Adults Introduction It is hard to disagree that there is a vast number of mental disorders that prevent people from leading their normal lives and are quite challenging to treat. One such psychological condition is depression (Li et al., 2020). Since there is a social stigma of depression, and some of its symptoms are similar to […]
• Stress and Depression Among Nursing Students The study aims to determine how different the manifestations of stress and depression are among American nursing students compared to students of other disciplines and what supports nursing students in continuing their education.
• Depression in Diabetes Patients The presence of depression concomitant to diabetes mellitus prevents the adaptation of the patient and negatively affects the course of the underlying disease.
• Depression among Homosexual Males The literature used for the research on the paper aims to overview depression among homosexual males and describe the role of the nurse and practices based on the Recovery Model throughout the depression.
• “What the Depression Did to People” by Edward Robb Ellis Nevertheless, the way the facts are grouped and delivered could be conducive to students’ ability to develop a clearer picture of the catastrophic downturn’s influences on the nation’s and the poor population’s mentalities.
• Economic Inequality During COVID-19: Correlation With Depression and Addiction Thus, during the pandemic, people with lower incomes experienced depression and increased their addictive behaviors to cope with the stress of COVID-19.
• Obesity Co-Occurring With Depression The assessment will identify the patient with the two conditions, address the existing literature on the issue, examine how patients are affected by organizational and governmental policies, and propose strategies to improve the patient experience.
• Depression in the Black and Minority Ethnic Groups The third sector of the economy includes all non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary, philanthropic, and charitable organizations and social enterprises specializing in various types of activities, which did not find a place in either the public or […]
• Biological and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Depression The social-cognitive perspective states that the disorder’s development is influenced by the events in the patient’s life and their way of thinking.
• A Description on the Topic Screening Depression If there is the implementation of evidence-based care, a reduction in the proportion of disability for patients with depression would be expected. A proposal was written describing the need for screening depression patients of nearly […]
• “Disclosure of Symptoms of Postnatal Depression, …” by Carolyn Chew-Graham Critique In light of hypothesizing the research question, the researchers suggest that health practitioners have the ability to create a conducive environment for the disclosure of information.
• Depression – Psychotherapeutic Treatment Taking into account the fact that the specialist is not able to prescribe the medicine or a sort of treatment if he/she is not sure in the positive effect it might have on the health […]
• Depression as a Major Health Issue The purpose of the study was to examine the implications of cognitive behavior approaches for depression in old women receiving health care in different facilities.
• Effective Ways to Address Anxiety and Depression Looking deep into the roots of the problem will provide a vast and detailed vision of it, and will help to develop ways to enhance the disorders.
• Einstepam: The Treatment of Depression The treatment of depression has greatly revolutionized since the development of tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors in the 1950s. In the brain, it inhibits the NMDA receptors and isoforms of NOS.
• The Potential of Psilocybin in Treating Depression First of all, it is essential to understand the general effects of psilocybin on the brain that are present in the current literature.
• Depression Among High School Students The major problem surrounding depression among adolescents is that they are rarely diagnosed in time and therefore do not receive treatment they need.
• NICE Guidelines for Depression Management: Project Proposal This topic is of importance for VEGA because the center does not employ any specific depression management guidelines.
• Depression: Diagnostics, Prevention and Treatment Constant communication with the patient and their relatives, purposeful questioning of the patient, special scales and tests, active observation of the patient’s appearance and behavior are the steps in the nursing diagnosis of depression.
• Depression and Anxiety Intervention Plan John’s Wort to intervene for her condition together with the prescribed anti-depressant drugs, I would advise and educate her on the drug-to-drug relations, and the various complications brought about by combining St. Conducting proper patient […]
• The Use of Psychedelic Drugs in Treating Depression This study aims to establish whether depressive patients can significantly benefit from psilocybin without substantial side effects like in the case of other psychedelic drugs.
• Postpartum Depression Among the Low-Income U.S. Mothers Mothers who take part in the programs develop skills and knowledge to use the existing social entities to ensure that they protect themselves from the undesirable consequences associated with the PPD and other related psychological […]
• Depression: Description, Symptoms and Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment A diagnosis is made in situations where the symptoms persist for at least two weeks and lead to a change in the individual’s level of functioning.
• Psychedelic Drugs and Their Effects on Anxiety and Depression The participants must also be willing to remain in the study for the duration of the experiments and consent to the drugs’ use.
• VEGA Medical Center: The Quality of Depression Management This presentation is going to provide an overview of a project dedicated to the implementation of NICE guidelines at the VEGA Medical Center.
• Anxiety and Depression in Hispanic Youth in Monmouth County Therefore, the Health Project in Monmouth County will help Hispanic children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 to cope with anxiety and depression through behavioral therapy.
• Anxiety Disorders and Depression In her case, anxiety made her feel that she needed to do more, and everything needed to be perfect. She noted that the background of her depression and anxiety disorders was her family.
• Clinical Case Report: Depression It is possible to assume that being in close contact with a person who has depression also increases the probability of experiencing its symptoms.
• PICO Analysis of Depression In other words, the causes of the given mental disorder can highly vary, and there is no sufficient evidence to point out a primary factor that triggers depression.
• Interventions for Treating Depression after Stroke Inherently, the link between depression and stroke can be analyzed on the basis of post-stroke depression that is identified as the major neuropsychiatric corollary of stroke.
• Depression: The Implications and Challenges in Managing the Illness At home, these people lack interest in their family and are not be able to enjoy the shared activities and company of the family.
• Expression Symptoms of Depression A major finding of the critique is that although the research method and design are appropriate to this type of study, the results may be speculative in their validity and reliability as the researchers used […]
• Researching Postnatal Depression Health professionals suggest that the fluctuations in the level of hormones cause changes in the chemical composition of the brain. The researcher has stated that the sample was selected from the general practitioners and health […]
• The Older Women With Depression Living in Long-Term Care The researchers used the probability-sampling method to select the institutions that were included in the study. The health care professionals working in the nursing homes were interviewed to ascertain the diagnosis of depression as well […]
• Medical Evaluation: 82-Year-Old Patient With Depression Her extreme level of weakness unfolded when the patient admitted that she lacked the strength to stand on her feet and to head back to her sleeping bed on a disastrous night.Mrs.
• Depression in Adults: Community Health Needs The challenge of depression in the elderly is the recognition of signs and symptoms or the frequent underreporting of the symptoms of depression in adults over the age of 65.
• The Discussion about Depression in Older Patients Depression is often identified as the most prevalent psychiatric disorder in the elderly and is usually determined by symptoms that belong to somatic, affective, and cognitive categories.
• Depression in Older People in Australia Although a good number of depressed elderly patients aspire to play an active role in the treatment decision-making process, some prefer to delegate this role to their doctors.
• In-Vitro Fertilization and Postpartum Depression The research was conducted through based on professional information sources and statistical data collected from the research study used to further validate the evidence and outcome of this study.
• Depression: Screening and Diagnosis What he tries to do is to live a day and observe the changes that occur around. What do you do to change your attitude to life?
• Depression in Australia. Evaluation of Different Factors In attempts to identify the biological causes of depression, the researchers focus on the analysis of brain functioning, chemical mediators, their correlations with the neurologic centers in the brain, and impact on the limbic system […]
• Mental Health Paper: Depression The prevalence of mental health conditions has been the subject of many studies, with most of these highlighting the increase in these illnesses.
• The Two Hit Model of Cytokine-Induced-Depression The association between IL-6 polymorphism and reduced risk of depressive symptoms confirms the role of the inflammatory response system in the pathophysiology of IFN-alpha-induced depression.
• Ante-Partum & Postpartum Exposure to Maternal Depression The researchers engaged in the research work on this particular study topic by approaching it on the basis of maternal behavior and circumstances, as they connect to depressive conditions in their own lives and the […]
• Depression in Australia, How Treat This Disorder According to The World Health Organization, depression is defined as a disorder in the mental health system that is presented with feelings of guiltiness, low concentration, and a decrease in the need for sleep.
• Steroid Use and Teen Depression In this manner, the researcher will be in a position to determine which of the two indicators is strongest, and then later, the indicators can be narrowed down to the most basic and relevant.
• Depression Among Minority Groups Mental disorders are among the major problems facing the health sector in America and across the world in the contemporary society.
• Aspects and Definition of Depression: Psychiatry This is the personal counseling of a patient with the doctor, and it is one of the very best processes. In the case of a physician dealing with a mental patient, the most preferable way […]
• Alcoholism and Depression: Intervention Strategies The intention of the research paper is to assess if indeed there is an association between alcoholism as manifested by Jackson, and a case of depression.
• Depression and Paranoid Personality Disorder Bainbridge include: The analysis of paranoia and anxiety caused by substance abuse reveals that the diagnosis can be correct based on the symptoms, but the long-lasting nature of the symptoms rejects this diagnosis in favor […]
• Antidepressant Drugs for Depression or Dysthymia These are the newer form of antidepressant that are based on both the principle of serotonin reuptake prevention and norepinephrine action.
• The Relationship of Type 2 Diabetes and Depression Type 2 diabetes is generally recognized as an imbalance between insulin sensitivity and beta cell function We have chosen a rural area in Wisconsin where we can focus our study and select a group of […]
• Teenage Depression and Alcoholism There also has been a demonstrated connection between alcoholism and depression in all ages; as such, people engage in alcoholism as a method of self medication to dull the feelings of depression, hopelessness and lack […]
• “Relationships of Problematic Internet Use With Depression”: Study Strengths and Weaknesses One of the study strengths is that the subject selection process is excellently and well-designed, where the subjects represent the study sample, in general.
• Depression Treatment: Biopsychosocial Theory More to the point, the roles of nurses, an interprofessional team, and the patient’s family will be examined regarding the improvement of Majorie’s health condition.
• Postpartum Depression and Its Impact on Infants The goal of this research was “to investigate the prevalence of maternal depressive symptoms at 5 and 9 months postpartum in a low-income and predominantly Hispanic sample, and evaluate the impact on infant weight gain, […]
• Postpartum Depression: Statistics and Methods of Diagnosis The incorporation of the screening tools into the existing electronic medical support system has proved to lead to positive outcomes for both mothers and children.
• Comorbidity of Depression and Pain It is also known that dysregulation of 5-HT receptors in the brain is directly related to the development of depression and the regulation of the effects of substance P, glutamate, GABA and other pain mediators. […]
• Depression Among University Students The greatest majority of the affected individuals in different universities will be unable to take good care of their bodies and living rooms.
• Hallucinations and Geriatric Depression Intervention Sandy has asserted further that the cleaners at the residence have been giving him the wrong medication since they are conspiring to end his life with the FBI.Mr.
• Changes in Approaches to the Treatment of Depression Over the Past Decade In spite of the fact that over the past decade many approaches to the treatment of depression remained the same, a lot of new methods appeared and replaced some old ones due to the development […]
• Management of Treatment-Resistant Depression The significance of the problem, the project’s aims, the impact that the project may have on the nursing practice, and the coverage of this condition are the primary focuses of this paper.
• Teenage Depression: Psychology-Based Treatment This finding underlines the need to interrogate the issue of depression’s ontology and epistemology. Hence, there is the need to have an elaborate and comprehensive policy for addressing teenage depression.
• Depression and Anxiety in Dialysis Patients However, the study indicates the lack of research behind the connection of depression and cognitive impairment, which is a significant limitation to the conclusive statement.
• Adolescent Grief and Depression In looking for an activity that may help him or her keep away from the pain he or she is experiencing, the victim may decide to engage in sexual activities. Later, the adolescent is also […]
• Depression Disorder: Key Factors Epidemiology refers to the study of the distribution and determinants of health related events in specific populations and its applications to health problems.
• Depression Effects of School Children However the present difficulties that he is going through being a 16 year old; may be associated to a possible cause of Down syndrome complications, or the feelings and behavioral deficiency he associates to the […]
• Depression, Hallucination, and Suicide: Mental Cases How they handle the process determines the kind of aftermath they will experience for instance it can take the route of hallucinations which is treatable or suicide which is irreversible thus how each case is […]
• Depression, Its Perspective and Management Therefore this paper seeks to point out that stress is a major ingredient of depression; show the causes, symptoms, highlight how stresses is manifested in different kinds of people, show how to manage stress that […]
• The Theory of Personality Psychology During Depression The study concerns personality pathology, and the results of the treatment given to patients who are under depression, and how personalities may have adverse effects on the consequences of the cure.
• Depression and the Media Other components of the cognitive triad of depression are the aspect of seeing the environment as overwhelming and that one is too small to make an impact and also seeing the future as bleak and […]
• Poor Body Image, Anxiety, and Depression: Women Who Undergo Breast Implants H02: There is no difference in overt attractiveness to, and frequency of intimacy initiated by, the husband or cohabitating partner of a breast implant patient both before and after the procedure.
• Depression: A Cognitive Perspective Therefore, the cause of depression on this line may be a real shortage of skills, accompanied by negative self-evaluation because the individual is more likely to see the negative aspects or the skills he lacks […]
• Stress, Depression and Psychoneuroimmunology
• Depression: Helping Students in the Classroom
• Family Therapy for Treating Major Depression
• Adverse Childhood Experiences Cause Depression
• Rumination, Perfectionism and Depression in Young People
• Beck’s Cognitive Therapy Approach to Depression Treatment
• Depression: Risk Factors, Incidence, Preventive Measures & Prognostic Factors
• Depression Diagnostics Methods
• Concept Analysis of Loneliness, Depression, Self-esteem
• Teen Suicide and Depression
• The Correlation Between Perfectionism and Depression
• Geriatric Dementia, Delirium, and Depression
• Dementia, Delirium, and Depression in Older Adults
• Depression in People With Alcohol Dependence
• Creating a Comprehensive Psychological Treatment Plan: Depression
• Experimental Psychology. Bouldering for Treating Depression
• Depression and Psychotherapy in Adolescence
• Postpartum Depression: Treatment and Therapy
• Atypical Depression Symptoms and Treatment
• Dementia, Delirium, and Depression in Frail Elders
• Depression & Patient Safety: Speak Up Program
• Mindfulness Meditation Therapy in Depression Cases
• A Review of Postpartum Depression and Continued Post Birth Support
• Psychodynamic Therapy for Depression
• Depression as a Psychological Disorder
• Great Depression in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
• Depression in Adolescents and Interventions
• Bipolar Disorder: Reoccurring Hypomania & Depression
• Postpartum Depression: Understanding the Needs of Women
• Major Depression Treatment During Pregnancy
• Patients’ Depression and Practitioners’ Suggestions
• Traditional Symptoms of Depression
• Social Media Impact on Depression and Eating Disorder
• Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents
• Depression Studies and Online Research Sources
• Depression Explanation in Psychological Theories
• Depression Assessment Using Intake Notes
• Depression in Adolescents and Cognitive Therapy
• Diagnosing Depression: Implementation and Evaluation Plan
• Depression in Iranian Women and Health Policies
• Depression Patients and Psychiatrist’s Work
• Depression Patients’ Needs and Treatment Issues
• Depression in Patients with Comorbidity
• Depression After Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment
• Depression and Psychosis: 32-Year-Old Female Patient
• Postpartum Depression and Acute Depressive Symptoms
• Postpartum Depression and Its Peculiarities
• Exercises as a Treatment for Depression
• Depression Treatment Changes in 2006-2017
• Depression in Elders: Social Factors
• Depression Among High School Students
• False Memories in Patients with Depression
• Postpartum Depression Analysis in “Yellow Wallpaper”
• The Canadian Depression Causes
• Teen Website: Fish Will Keep Depression Away
• Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression
• Fast Food, Obesity, Depression, and Other Issues
• Depression in the Future Public Health
• Depression: Patients With a Difficult Psychological State
• Depression: Pathophysiology and Treatment
• Stress, Depression, and Responses to Them
• Problem of the Depression in Teenagers
• Supporting the Health Needs of Patients With Parkinson’s, Preeclampsia, and Postpartum Depression
• Depression and Its Causes in the Modern Society
• Hamilton Depression Rating Scale Application
• Yoga for Depression and Anxiety
• Sleep Disturbance, Depression, Anxiety Correlation
• Depression in Late Life: Interpersonal Psychotherapy
• Postpartum Depression and Comorbid Disorders
• Arab-Americans’ Acculturation and Depression
• Relationship Between Depression and Sleep Disturbance
• Child’s Mental Health and Depression in Adulthood
• Parents’ Depression and Toddler Behaviors
• Managing Stress and Depression at Work Places – Psychology
• Job’ Stress and Depression
• Depression Measurements – Psychology
• Methodological Bias Associated with Sex Depression
• Relationship Between Sleep and Depression in Adolescence
• The Effects of Depression on Physical Activity
• Psychological Disorder: Depression
• Depression and Workplace Violence
• The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Emotional Abuse
• Depression Diagnosis and Theoretical Models
• The Impact of Exercise on Women Who Suffer From Depression
• Evolutionary Psychology: Depression
• Depression in the Elderly
• Poly-Substance Abuse in Adolescent Males With Depression
• How Does Peer Pressure Contribute to Adolescent Depression?
• How Do Genetic and Environmental Factors Contribute To The Expression of Depression?
• Depression and Cognitive Therapy
• Cognitive Treatment of Depression
• Book Review: “Breadwinning Daughters: Young Women Working in a Depression- Era City, 1929-1939” by Katrina Srigley
• Depression: A Critical Evaluation
• Psychopharmacological Treatment for Depression
• “Breadwinning Daughters: Young Working Women in a Depression-Era City” by Katrina Srigley
• Interpersonal Communication Strategies Regarding Depression
• Depression: Law Enforcement Officers and Stress
• Social Influences on Behavior: Towards Understanding Depression and Alcoholism Based on Social Situations
• Depression Experiences in Law Enforcement
• Childhood Depression & Bi-Polar Disorder
• Depression Psychological Evaluation
• Concept of Childhood Depression
• Correlation Between Multiple Pregnancies and Postpartum Depression or Psychosis
• Depression and Its Effects on Participants’ Performance in the Workplace
• Catatonic Depression: Etiology and Management
• Depression: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
• Depression Levels and Development
• Depression Treatment: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
• Concept of Depression Disorder
• Does Divorce Have a Greater Impact on Men than on Women in Terms of Depression?
• Oral versus Written Administration of the Geriatric Depression Scale

❓Research Questions for a Depression Essay

• Does Poverty Impact Depression in African American Adolescents and the Development of Suicidal Ideations?
• Does Neighborhood Violence Lead to Depression Among Caregivers of Children With Asthma?
• Does Parent Depression Correspond With Child Depression?
• How Depression Affects Our Lives?
• Does Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Have an Effect on Depression Levels in Elderly Women?
• How Can Overcome Depression Through 6 Lifestyle Changes?
• Does Maternal Depression Have a Negative Effect on Parent-Child Attachment?
• Can Providers’ Education About Postpartum Depression?
• Can Vacation Help With Depression?
• How Children Deal With Depression?
• Can Diet Help Stop Depression and Violence?
• Does Depression Assist Eating Disorders?
• Does Depression Lead to Suicide and Decreased Life Expectancy?
• Can Obesity Cause Depression?
• Can Exercise Increase Fitness and Reduce Weight in Patients With Depression?
• Does Fruit and Vegetable Consumption During Adolescence Predict Adult Depression?
• Does Depression Cause Cancer?
• Does Money Relieve Depression?
• Does the Average Person Experience Depression Throughout Their Life?
• Are Vaccines Cause Depression?
• Does Social Anxiety Lead to Depression?
• Does Stress Cause Depression?
• How Bipolar and Depression Are Linked?
• Does Postpartum Depression Affect Employment?
• Does Postpartum Depression Predict Emotional and Cognitive Difficulties in 11-Year-Olds?
• Does Regular Exercise Reduce Stress Levels, and Thus Reduce Symptoms of Depression?
• Does the Natural Light During Winters Really Create Depression?
• How Can Art Overcome Depression?
• How Anxiety and Depression Are Connected?
• Does Positive Psychology Ease Symptoms of Depression?
• Bullying Research Topics
• Conflict Research Topics
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Topics
• Disease Questions
• Burnout Questions
• Hyperactivity Disorder Research Ideas
• Insomnia Questions
• Eating Disorders Questions
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Understanding Depression and Managing It Effectively

Depression needs a personalized, holistic approach for effective management..

Posted August 14, 2024 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

• What Is Depression?
• Take our Depression Test
• Find a therapist to overcome depression
• Depression is a multi-faceted condition affecting every aspect of life, requiring personalized treatment.
• Depression's causes can be biological, psychological, and social; it is not merely a chemical imbalance.
• Medications can manage symptoms but are not a standalone solution for treating depression.
• Psychotherapy is crucial in developing coping strategies and understanding individual triggers for depression.

"Whatever you lack, you must borrow from yourself." — Cato

The term “ depression ” has evolved significantly over time, reflecting the changing ways in which society understands and describes this complex condition. From the ancient concept of “black bile” in Hippocratic medicine to the existential “pain of existence” and the romantic “spleen,” depression has long been a topic of interest not only to doctors and psychologists but also to intellectuals and religious figures.

In modern times, depression is often labeled as the “disorder of the century,” a term that captures the widespread and varied nature of this “obscure illness.” This article delves into the many faces of depression, emphasizing that it is not just a single mood but a multifaceted condition requiring a comprehensive approach to treatment.

The Multifaceted Nature of Depression

Depression is not a one-size-fits-all condition. Its manifestations can range from mild to severe, and it can be a temporary phase or a long-term condition integrated into a person’s way of life. Understanding depression requires recognizing that each person’s experience is different, and thus, their treatment needs will differ as well (Yapko, 2018).

The evolution of the term “depression” highlights its complexity. Historically, depression has been associated with various emotional states and conditions, and modern psychiatry now groups the causes of depression into three primary domains: biological, psychological, and social. Biological factors include neurochemistry, genetic predispositions, and the effects of certain diseases or medications (Yapko, 2018). Psychological factors encompass a person’s individual history, trauma exposure, and coping mechanisms. Social factors involve the relationships people maintain, the culture they grow up in, and the family dynamics they experience (Yapko, 2018).

This bio-psycho-social model illustrates that depression is not merely a chemical imbalance in the brain—a misconception perpetuated by the pharmaceutical industry since the advent of antidepressants like Prozac in the late 1980s (Lacasse & Leo, 2005). Although these medications can be beneficial for managing certain symptoms, they do not address the underlying causes of depression, such as poor coping skills, lack of a support network, or unresolved trauma (Yapko, 2018).

The Limitations of Antidepressants

While antidepressants can help alleviate some symptoms of depression, they are not a cure-all. The social use of the term “depression” has led to its frequent abuse and, unfortunately, its misuse in describing a wide range of moods and conditions.

This over-simplification often leads to an overreliance on medications, which cannot teach essential life skills such as problem-solving, building healthy relationships, or managing stress . Overreliance on medication without addressing these broader issues often leads to undertreatment, which can exacerbate the condition in the long run (Deacon & Abramowitz, 2005).

Furthermore, the narrative that depression is solely due to a chemical imbalance has been largely discredited by recent research. The simplistic view that a pill can “fix” depression ignores the complexity of the condition and can lead to disappointment and relapse . Effective treatment must, therefore, be holistic, incorporating therapy to build life skills and foster a deeper understanding of oneself and one’s risk factors (Moncrieff et al., 2022).

The Role of Therapy in Managing Depression

Psychotherapy plays a crucial role in helping individuals with their perceptions and relationships that give rise to depression. A skilled therapist can help identify the unique vulnerabilities, behaviors, and contexts that exacerbate and maintain depression in each person. This personalized approach allows individuals to develop coping strategies that are tailored to their specific needs and circumstances (Yapko, 2018).

The goal of therapy is not to “cure” depression but to transform the person’s perception of themselves and their relationship with their reality. It also equips individuals with the tools they need to manage their moods and themselves on an ongoing basis. This includes learning to recognize depressive patterns, developing better problem-solving skills, and creating a better social and relational environment (Gibson, 2024; Beck, 1979).

Supporting a Loved One with Depression

For those in a relationship with someone who is depressed, it is important to find a balance between being supportive and avoiding enabling self-defeating behaviors to continue. It’s crucial to encourage the depressed individual to seek help and engage in activities that can lift their mood, even if they initially resist. However, it’s equally important for the partner to take care of their well-being and not allow depression to dominate their life (Yapko, 2018).

Supporting a loved one with depression also involves setting boundaries . It’s essential to communicate that while the feelings of the depressed person are valid, they do not justify harmful behaviors or the neglect of their own needs or those of the relationship (Coyne, 1976). This understanding is part of the broader context in which depression, as a term and a condition, is often misused or misunderstood.

The Importance of Action

One of the most effective ways to counteract depression is through positive action. While depression often leads to passivity and a feeling of helplessness, taking small steps toward engaging with life and disrupting the current defeatist perception can create a positive feedback loop that improves mood and builds momentum. This could be as simple as taking a walk, engaging in a hobby, or socializing with friends (Jacobson et al., 1996), basically not surrendering to the problem (Gibson, 2024).

However, these actions must be taken with the right support and preparation. A person with depression may need to develop certain skills before they can successfully engage in these activities without feeling overwhelmed. This is where therapy and the support of loved ones play a critical role (Gibson, 2024).

Depression, as a term and a condition, has evolved significantly over the centuries, reflecting its complex and multi-dimensional nature. While medication can help alleviate some symptoms, it is not a standalone solution. Therapy, support from loved ones, and a proactive approach to building life skills and coping mechanisms are essential for managing depression effectively (Beck, 1979; Gibson, 2024).

For those supporting a loved one with depression, it’s important to be both supportive and self-caring, encouraging positive action without allowing the depression to dictate the terms of the relationship. With the right approach, it is possible to manage depression and lead a fulfilling life despite the challenges it presents (Yapko, 2018).

Beck, A. T. (1979). Cognitive therapy and emotional disorders . Penguin.

Coyne, J. C. (1976). Depression and the response of others. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85 (2), 186–193.

Deacon, B. J., & Abramowitz, J. S. (2005). The short-term efficacy of psychological treatments for depression: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 25 (4), 401–419.

Gibson, P. (2024). When The Bubble Bursts. A New Approach to Treating Depression. Strategic Science Books.

Jacobson, N. S., Martell, C. R., & Dimidjian, S. (2001). Behavioural activation treatment for depression: Returning to contextual roots. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 8 (3), 255–270.

Lacasse, J. R., & Leo, J. (2005). Serotonin and depression: A disconnect between the advertisements and the scientific literature. PLoS Medicine, 2 (12), e392.

Moncrieff, J., Cooper, R. E., Stockmann, T., Amendola, S., Hengartner, M. P., & Horowitz, M. A. (2022). The serotonin theory of depression: A systematic umbrella review of the evidence. Molecular Psychiatry, 27 (6), 2402–2414.

Yapko, M. D. (2018). Keys to unlocking depression: An integrated approach to healing . Yapko Publications.

Padraic Gibson, D.Psych, is a Consultant Clinical Psychotherapist and is the Clinical Director of The OCD Clinic®, and director of Training and Organization Consultation at The Coaching Clinic®, Dublin. He is senior research associate at Dublin City University.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Depression — The Issue of Depression and Its Reality Nowadays

The Issue of Depression and Its Reality Nowadays

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Published: Jun 6, 2019

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Depression Essays

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Depression is one of the most common mental disorders and it affects around 280 million people in the world. Though there is effective treatment available for mild, moderate, and severe depression, it’s a difficult disorder to manage. Severe depression can lead to suicide in the worst-case scenario and 700,000 people die from it every year, especially people between 15 and 29 years old.

These are only a few statistics but they show just how common depression is, which means it’s a relevant topic and it’s not a bad idea to explore it in an essay. Depression is often misunderstood, so it’s actually very important to discuss it and bring awareness to it.

People who have never experienced depression or studied it in any way often think that it’s just sadness, but that’s not the case. Depression affects the way people feel and act. It’s defined as a sustained decrease in mood and/or interest, which can last weeks, feelings of self-loathing and worthlessness, and suicidal thoughts.

Not only can you talk about depression itself in your essay and explain how it affects people’s quality of life, emotional state, and more, but you can also talk about treatment methods, the population sectors that are most affected, and the barriers to effective care that make things so much more difficult for people who suffer from depression.

You can also approach the topic of depression by exploring the risk factors, which include genetics, biochemistry, environmental factors, societal factors, and personality type. Self-help and coping mechanisms are also worth exploring since people with depression must be actively participating in their recovery.

Depression is a complex topic, so there are many ways you can flesh it out to bring something of value to the table. We recommend you do your research so you can take an informed stance, ask provocative questions, and call for specific action.

Make sure your essay is as compelling as it is informative. This is a very important subject and whatever you decide to focus on for your essay, it should have weight and make an impression on the reader.

On this page, you can find examples of essays on depression that can help you find your own point of discussion or create an argumentative or persuasive essay outline.

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Essay on Depression

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Depression, a common yet often misunderstood mental health disorder, intricately intertwines with our thinking patterns. This essay aims to explore the depths of depression, how it affects thinking, and the broader implications for individuals, particularly for students engaging in essay writing competitions.

Depression is more than just a fleeting sense of sadness. It is a clinical condition characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest in life. Its symptoms range from changes in sleep and appetite to difficulty concentrating and feelings of worthlessness.

The Science Behind Depression

Depression stems from a complex interaction of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. Neuroscientific research suggests that depression is linked to changes in neurotransmitter levels, such as serotonin and dopamine, and neural circuitry in the brain.

Depression’s Impact on Thinking

Depression significantly affects cognitive processes. It alters the way individuals perceive themselves, their lives, and the world around them.

• Negative Thought Patterns : Individuals with depression often experience persistent negative thoughts. They may have a pessimistic view of themselves, believing they are inadequate or worthless.
• Rumination : Those suffering from depression tend to ruminate, or excessively think about their problems and distress. This rumination can create a vicious cycle, exacerbating depressive symptoms and impairing problem-solving.
• Impaired Cognitive Functioning : Depression can affect concentration, memory, and decision-making capabilities. It can lead to difficulties in focusing and retaining information, impacting academic and professional performance.
• Distorted Reality : In severe cases, depression can lead to distorted thinking, where one’s perception of reality is significantly impaired. This might include having an overly negative interpretation of minor events or believing in things that have no basis in reality.

The Role of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a common and effective treatment for depression. It is based on the concept that changing negative thinking patterns and behaviors can lead to changes in emotions.

• Identifying Negative Thoughts : CBT involves recognizing and challenging negative thought patterns.
• Behavioral Activation : It encourages engaging in activities that are rewarding or enjoyable, even when one doesn’t feel like it.
• Developing Coping Strategies : CBT helps in developing practical skills to manage symptoms and cope with challenges.

Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults

Depression in adolescents and young adults is a serious mental health concern that can have significant and lasting effects on individuals’ lives. Here are some key aspects to consider:

• Prevalence: Depression is not uncommon among adolescents and young adults. It is estimated that around 15% of teenagers will experience at least one major depressive episode before reaching adulthood.
• Symptoms: The symptoms of depression in this age group can vary but often include persistent sadness, changes in sleep and appetite, loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, difficulty concentrating, and even thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
• Impact on Daily Life: Depression can severely disrupt daily life. Young people with depression may struggle academically, socially, and in their family relationships. It can lead to school absenteeism, social withdrawal, and even substance abuse.
• Risk Factors: Various factors can increase the risk of depression in adolescents and young adults, including genetic predisposition, family history of depression, trauma or abuse, chronic illness, and high levels of stress.
• Co-Occurring Disorders: Depression often co-occurs with other mental health issues, such as anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and eating disorders, making diagnosis and treatment more complex.
• Barriers to Seeking Help: Many adolescents and young adults may hesitate to seek help for depression due to stigma, lack of awareness, or fear of judgment. This can delay diagnosis and treatment.
• Treatment Options: Treatment for depression typically includes psychotherapy (such as cognitive-behavioral therapy), medication (in some cases), lifestyle changes (like regular exercise and a healthy diet), and support from family and friends.
• Importance of Early Intervention: Early intervention is crucial in managing depression. Recognizing the signs and symptoms and seeking help promptly can improve outcomes and prevent the worsening of the condition.
• Prevention: Efforts to prevent depression in this age group include promoting emotional resilience, teaching coping skills, providing a supportive environment, and reducing stressors when possible.
• Family and Peer Support: The support of family members and friends is invaluable in helping adolescents and young adults cope with depression. Open communication and understanding can make a significant difference.
• Educational and Community Resources: Schools and communities can play a vital role in recognizing and addressing depression. Educational programs and accessible mental health resources can benefit young individuals.

Breaking the Stigma

There is a significant stigma attached to depression, often preventing individuals from seeking help. Breaking this stigma is essential.

• Open Conversations : Encouraging discussions about mental health can foster a more supportive environment.
• Education and Awareness : Educating people about the realities of depression is crucial in dispelling myths and misconceptions.
• Promoting Mental Health Resources : Access to mental health resources and counseling should be promoted in schools and workplaces.

Personal Reflections in Essay Writing

When writing about depression, it’s important to:

• Use Empathetic Language : Be sensitive and understanding in your choice of words.
• Incorporate Personal Narratives : If comfortable, sharing personal experiences can provide a powerful perspective.
• Highlight Resilience and Hope : Focus on stories of overcoming challenges, resilience, and the potential for positive change.

In conclusion, Depression, a complex interplay of emotional, cognitive, and biological factors, profoundly impacts thinking patterns. Understanding this relationship is crucial, especially for students who may face academic and social pressures that can exacerbate these issues. Writing about depression in a thoughtful, informed, and empathetic manner not only raises awareness but also contributes to a more supportive and understanding society. As we continue to explore and understand depression, we open doors to more effective treatments and a world where mental health is given the attention and care it deserves.

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‘Shoot Me Up With a Big One’: The Pain of Matthew Perry’s Last Days

Court papers show that Mr. Perry, the “Friends” star who had long struggled with addiction, was increasingly taking ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, in the days before he died.

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By Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens

On the day Matthew Perry died , his live-in personal assistant gave him his first ketamine shot of the morning at around 8:30 a.m. About four hours later, while Mr. Perry watched a movie at his home in Los Angeles, the assistant gave him another injection.

It was only about 40 minutes later that Mr. Perry wanted another shot, the assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, recalled in a plea agreement that he signed.

“Shoot me up with a big one,” Mr. Perry told Mr. Iwamasa, according to the agreement, and asked him to prepare his hot tub.

So Mr. Iwamasa filled a syringe with ketamine, gave his boss a third shot and left the house to run some errands, according to court papers. When he returned, he found Mr. Perry face down in the water, dead.

Mr. Iwamasa was one of five people who the authorities in California said this week had been charged with a conspiracy to distribute ketamine , a powerful anesthetic, to Mr. Perry. The defendants also included two doctors, a woman accused of being a dealer and an acquaintance who pleaded guilty to acting as a middleman.

Mr. Perry, a beloved figure who rose to fame playing Chandler Bing on the sitcom “Friends,” had long struggled with addiction. Court papers filed in the case shed light on the desperate weeks leading up to Mr. Perry’s death on Oct. 28 at the age of 54.

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Matthew Perry investigation: What we know about the people charged in his death

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Two doctors and a live-in personal assistant to Matthew Perry are among the people charged following a months-long investigation into how the prescription drug ketamine that contributed to the actor’s death was procured.

Prosecutors on Thursday charged five people in connection with the death of the “Friends” star, who was found dead in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28. Trace amounts of ketamine — which is sometimes used to treat depression — were found in his stomach, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

But the level found in his blood was about the same as would be used during general anesthesia, his autopsy showed.

Since then, authorities have been working to determine how Perry got the drug, which caused cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression. Ketamine is a legal medication commonly used as an anesthetic, but it can be abused recreationally. According to the American Addiction Centers, users have described ketamine as producing “out-of-body experiences” and making them feel as if they’re “melting in their surroundings.”

The Times reported in June that investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Service had linked several people to procurement of the ketamine.

A dealer known as ‘Ketamine Queen’ and 2 doctors among 5 charged in death of Matthew Perry

Federal authorities have filed drug charges against five individuals, including two doctors, in connection with the death of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry.

Aug. 15, 2024

The named defendants in the case include two physicians, Perry’s live-in personal assistant who authorities say injected him with ketamine and a dealer dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” by federal agents.

Here’s what we know about the people named in the indictment, which was unsealed Thursday:

Jasveen Sangha, 41, also known as the “Ketamine Queen” The North Hollywood woman was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine and five counts of distribution of ketamine, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say Perry’s personal assistant began obtaining ketamine for the actor from Sangha and a street dealer in mid-October. She is accused of selling about 50 vials of the drug to the actor for $11,000.

Prosecutors allege in court documents that Sangha engaged in a five-year-long drug business selling meth, ketamine and other drugs. But her specialty was ketamine, and she held “herself out as a celebrity drug dealer with high quality goods,” according to court records.

Sangha rented the “stash house” where authorities said she conducted her drug-selling business for several thousands of dollars per month and is leasing a 2024 BMW, but she has been unemployed since 2019, prosecutors wrote. Previously, she claimed to be self-employed as an artist and singer.

In court papers, prosecutors highlighted the contents of her social media accounts to suggest how enmeshed she is in the drug culture. A photo posted on social media shows Sangha wearing a beaded bracelet with the word “mushy” on it and adorned with mushrooms. The bracelet is a type of kandi, an item popular in the rave culture intended to be worn and sometimes given to fellow ravers. On the photo, she wrote “#ravetothegrave”

• Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, referred to as “Dr. P” Federal prosecutors say a month before Perry’s death, Plasencia learned that the actor was interested in obtaining ketamine. He is accused of injecting Perry with ketamine at his Pacific Palisades home on Sept. 30 and then leaving vials of ketamine, syringes and injection instructions for Perry’s assistant. Plascencia was charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.

Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, a San Diego-based physician Chavez admitted in a plea agreement that he sold ketamine to Plasencia, including some he diverted from his former ketamine clinic, according to prosecutors. He also made false statements to a wholesale ketamine distributor and submitted a false prescription in the name of a former patient without that patient’s knowledge or permission, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine in connection with Perry’s death.

Chavez and Plasencia apparently have known each other for years, according to their respective LinkedIn profiles. Chavez wrote in a recommendation on Plasencia’s page that they’ve “worked closely” and that Chavez acted as a “coach and mentor over many years.” Chavez wrote about Plasencia: “He is inquisitive and clever and is a committed life long learner and teacher. Dr. Plasencia is committed to providing his patients with family centered care as well as running socially responsible businesses.”

Returning the favor, Plasencia wrote in a recommendation of Chavez that his mentoring “has been extremely helpful to me as I navigated my own path as a medical entrepreneur.”

• Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, Perry’s live-in personal assistant Iwamasa pleaded guilty Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He admitted to injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing several injections on the actor the day he died, authorities said.
• Erik Fleming, 54 Fleming, described by prosecutors as a drug dealer and acquaintance of Perry’s, admitted to authorities that he received vials of ketamine from Sangha and distributed 50 vials of the drug to Iwamasa, half of them four days before Perry’s death. Fleming pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of ketamine that resulted in death.

For the record:

6:29 p.m. Aug. 15, 2024 An earlier version of this article referred to Dr. Cesar Chavez. The physician’s name is Mark Chavez.

Sangha was arrested in March on narcotics charges and posted a $100,000 bond in a separate case.

During a raid at Sangha’s home on March 19, authorities seized 1,978 grams of methamphetamine pills, 79 bottles of liquid ketamine, 2,127 grams of pills suspected of being Xanax, 323 grams of a substance suspected of being psilocybin mushrooms and 128 grams of suspected cocaine, according to federal prosecutors. Authorities also found a journal in her home that detailed thousands of dollars in drug transactions, according to Thursday’s indictment.

Prosecutors say that Perry was not the only victim who overdosed on Sangha’s product.

In August 2019, she sold ketamine to Cody McLaury hours before his death. One of McLaury’s family members texted Sangha: “The ketamine you sold my brother killed him. It’s listed as the cause of death,” according to court records.

Days later, according to the records, Sangha searched on Google, “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death[?]”

More to Read

Matthew Perry’s shocking last month on ketamine: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’

Aug. 16, 2024

Column: The arrests in Matthew Perry’s death expose a system built to prey on addicts

With arrests in Matthew Perry death, is L.A.’s ketamine bubble about to burst?

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Nathan Solis is a Metro reporter covering breaking news at the Los Angeles Times. He previously worked for Courthouse News Service, where he wrote both breaking news and enterprise stories ranging from criminal justice to homelessness and politics. Before that, Solis was at the Redding Record Searchlight as a multimedia journalist, where he anchored coverage of the destructive 2017 fires in Northern California. Earlier in his career, he worked for Eastsider L.A.

Hannah Fry covers breaking news for the Los Angeles Times. She most recently covered Orange County for The Times and has written extensively about criminal trials, housing, politics and government. In 2020, Fry was part of the team that was a Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of a boat fire that killed 34 people off the coast of Santa Barbara. Fry came to The Times from the Daily Pilot, where she covered coastal cities, education and crime. An Orange County native, Fry started her career as an intern at the Orange County Register.

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