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Depression is a mental state of low mood and aversion to activity. It affects about 3.5% of the global population, or about 280 million people worldwide, as of 2020. Depression affects a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings, and sense of well-being. The pleasure or joy that a person gets from certain experiences is reduced, and the afflicted person often experiences a loss of motivation or interest in those activities. (2025). 9781849203494, Sage. ISBN 9781849203494 People with depression may experience sadness, feelings of dejection or hopelessness, difficulty in thinking and concentration, or a significant change in appetite or time spent sleeping; suicidal thoughts can also be experienced.
Depression can have multiple, sometimes overlapping, origins. Depression can be a symptom of some mood disorders, some of which are also commonly called depression, such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and dysthymia.
Studies have consistently shown that physicians have had the highest depression and suicide rates compared to people in many other lines of work—for suicide, 40% higher for male physicians and 130% higher for female physicians.
Life events and changes that may cause depressed mood includes, but are not limited to, childbirth, menopause, financial difficulties, unemployment, stress (such as from work, education, military service, family, living conditions, marriage, etc.), a medical diagnosis (cancer, HIV, diabetes, etc.), bullying, loss of a loved one, natural disasters, social isolation, rape, relationship troubles, jealousy, separation, or catastrophic injury. Similar depressive symptoms are associated with Survivor guilt. Adolescents may be especially prone to experiencing a depressed mood following social rejection, peer pressure, or bullying.
Studies have found that anywhere from 30 to 85 percent of patients suffering from chronic pain are also clinically depressed. A 2014 study by Hooley et al. concluded that chronic pain increased the chance of death by suicide by two to three times. In 2017, the British Medical Association found that 49% of UK chronic pain patients also had depression.
As many as 1/3 of stroke survivors will later develop post-stroke depression. Because strokes may cause damage to the parts of the brain involved in processing emotions, reward, and cognition, stroke may be considered a direct cause of depression.
Outside the mood disorders: borderline personality disorder often features an extremely intense depressive mood; adjustment disorder with depressed mood is a psychological response to an identifiable event or stressor, in which the resulting emotional or behavioral symptoms are significant but do not meet the criteria for a major depressive episode;American Psychiatric Association (2025). 9780890420256, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.. ISBN 9780890420256 and posttraumatic stress disorder, a mental disorder that sometimes follows Major trauma, is commonly accompanied by depressed mood.
Authors and researchers have begun to conceptualize ways in which the historical legacies of racism and colonialism may create depressive conditions. (2025). 9780822352389, Duke University Press Books. ISBN 9780822352389 Given the lived experiences of marginalized peoples, ranging from conditions of Human migration, class stratification, cultural genocide, labor exploitation, and social mobility, depression can be seen as a "rational response to global conditions", according to Ann Cvetkovich.
Psychogeographical depression overlaps somewhat with the theory of "deprejudice", a portmanteau of "depression" and "prejudice" proposed by Cox, Abramson, Devine, and Hollon in 2012, who argue for an integrative approach to studying the often comorbid experiences. Cox, Abramson, Devine, and Hollon are concerned with the ways in which social are often internalized, creating negative self-stereotypes that then produce depressive symptoms.
Unlike the theory of "deprejudice", a psychogeographical theory of depression attempts to broaden study of the subject beyond an individual experience to one produced on a societal scale, seeing particular manifestations of depression as rooted in dispossession; historical legacies of genocide, slavery, and colonialism are productive of segregation, both material and psychic material deprivation, and concomitant circumstances of violence, systemic exclusion, and lack of access to legal protections. The demands of navigating these circumstances compromise the resources available to a population to seek comfort, health, stability, and sense of security. The historical memory of this trauma conditions the psychological health of future generations, making psychogeographical depression an intergenerational experience as well.
This work is supported by recent studies in genetic science which has demonstrated an epigenetic link between the trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors and genetic reverberations in subsequent generations.
The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 2009 guidelines indicate that should not be routinely used for the initial treatment of mild depression, because the risk-benefit ratio is poor. NICE guidelines, published October 2009 . Nice.org.uk. Retrieved on 24 November 2015.
Physical activity has a protective effect against the emergence of depression in some people. Increased daily step counts have been associated with lower depressive symptoms.
There is limited evidence suggesting yoga may help some people with depressive disorders or elevated levels of depression, but more research is needed.
Reminiscence of old and fond memories is another alternative form of treatment, especially for the elderly who have lived longer and have more experiences in life. It is a method that causes a person to recollect memories of their own life, leading to a process of self-recognition and identifying familiar stimuli. By maintaining one's personal past and identity, it is a technique that stimulates people to view their lives in a more objective and balanced way, causing them to pay attention to positive information in their life stories, which would successfully reduce depressive mood levels.
Depression is a common condition among the elderly living in Long-term care (LTC) facilities. Although Antidepressant medications are frequently prescribed, many residents prefer non-pharmacological treatments such as psychological therapies. A systematic review of 19 randomized controlled trials found that therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy, behavioural therapy, and reminiscence therapy may reduce depressive symptoms and improve short-term quality of life. However, the evidence was of very low certainty, and some participants were more likely to drop out of therapy. There was no clear effect on symptoms, with only short term improvements seen with psychological therapies. Further high-quality studies are needed.
There is limited evidence that continuing antidepressant medication for one year reduces the risk of depression recurrence with no additional harm. Recommendations for psychological treatments or combination treatments in preventing recurrence are not clear.
Depression is a major mental-health cause of disease burden. Its consequences further lead to significant burden in public health, including a higher risk of dementia, premature mortality arising from physical disorders, and maternal depression impacts on child growth and development. Approximately 76% to 85% of depressed people in low- and middle-income countries do not receive treatment; barriers to treatment include: inaccurate assessment, lack of trained health-care providers, social stigma and lack of resources.
The stigma comes from misguided societal views that people with mental illness are different from everyone else, and they can choose to get better only if they wanted to. Due to this more than half of the people with depression do not receive help with their disorders. The stigma leads to a strong preference for privacy. An analysis of 40,350 undergraduates from 70 institutions by Posselt and Lipson found that undergraduates who perceived their classroom environments as highly competitive had a 37% higher chance of developing depression and a 69% higher chance of developing anxiety. Several studies have suggested that unemployment roughly doubles the risk of developing depression.
The World Health Organization has constructed guidelines – known as The Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) – aiming to increase services for people with mental, neurological and substance-use disorders. Depression is listed as one of conditions prioritized by the programme. Trials conducted show possibilities for the implementation of the programme in low-resource primary-care settings dependent on primary-care practitioners and lay health-workers.
According to 2011 study, people who are high in Competition traits are also likely to measure higher for depression and anxiety.
In Ancient Greece, disease was thought due to an imbalance in the four basic bodily fluids, or Humorism. Personality types were similarly thought to be determined by the dominant humor in a particular person. Derived from the Ancient Greek melas, "black", and kholé, "bile", melancholia was described as a distinct disease with particular mental and physical symptoms by Hippocrates in his Aphorisms, where he characterized all "fears and despondencies, if they last a long time" as being symptomatic of the ailment.Hippocrates, Aphorisms, Section 6.23
During the 18th century, the humoral theory of melancholia was increasingly being challenged by mechanical and electrical explanations; references to dark and gloomy states gave way to ideas of slowed circulation and depleted energy. German physician Johann Christian Heinroth, however, argued melancholia was a disturbance of the soul due to moral conflict within the patient.
In the 20th century, the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin distinguished manic depression. The influential system put forward by Kraepelin unified nearly all types of mood disorder into manic–depressive insanity. Kraepelin worked from an assumption of underlying brain pathology, but also promoted a distinction between endogenous (internally caused) and exogenous (externally caused) types.
Other psycho-dynamic theories were proposed. Existential and humanistic theories represented a forceful affirmation of individualism. (1986). 9780866566247, Psychology Press. ISBN 9780866566247 Austrian existential psychiatrist Viktor Frankl connected depression to feelings of futility and meaninglessness. (2025). 9780738203546, Basic Books. ISBN 9780738203546 Frankl's logotherapy addressed the filling of an "existential vacuum" associated with such feelings, and may be particularly useful for depressed adolescents.Seidner, Stanley S. (10 June 2009) "A Trojan Horse: Logotherapeutic Transcendence and its Secular Implications for Theology" . Mater Dei Institute. pp 14–15.
Researchers theorized that depression was caused by a chemical imbalance in neurotransmitters in the brain, a theory based on observations made in the 1950s of the effects of reserpine and isoniazid in altering monoamine neurotransmitter levels and affecting depressive symptoms. During the 1960s and 70s, manic-depression came to refer to just one type of mood disorder (now most commonly known as bipolar disorder) which was distinguished from (unipolar) depression. The terms unipolar and bipolar had been coined by German psychiatrist Karl Kleist.
In July 2022, British psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, also psychiatrist Mark Horowtiz and others proposed in a study on academic journal Molecular Psychiatry that depression is not caused by a serotonin imbalance in the human body, unlike what most of the psychiatry community points to, and that therefore anti-depressants do not work against the illness. However, such study was met with criticism from some psychiatrists, who argued the study's methodology used an indirect trace of serotonin, instead of taking direct measurements of the molecule. Moncrieff said that, despite her study's conclusions, no one should interrupt their treatment if they are taking any anti-depressant.
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