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Major Depression Research Paper

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Major depression is a mood disorder with many biological and psychological explanations. Mood disorders are kind of self-explanatory. They are different disorders that effect your mood either through your behavior or your mental state. Some of the facts stated about psychological features and biological features of major depression overlap, but there are also major differences as well. Different articles, such as the Harvard Medical School, Harvard Health Publishing’s “What Causes Depression?,” go into the different biological and environmental factors that contribute to this disease. In addition to this, the Intro to Applied Psychology: Lecture Four—Mood Disorders: Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Suicide, play a large factor in the facts …show more content…

Simply put, mood disorders are a type of mental disorder that exhibits noticeable and chronic change in mood, and can cause impaired behavioral, cognitive, or physical function. This is applicable to major depression, because those that suffer from this disorder tend to feel extreme and ongoing worthlessness and hopelessness. There are multiple factors that contribute to this disorder, both biological and psychological. Along with the factors that contribute to this disease, there are multiple treatment options that can be prescribed as …show more content…

It states that genetic factors, hormones, and brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters, play a part in suffering from depression, as well. Under the subheading, ‘Genetic Factors,’ it explains that depression usually runs in families and the genes that contribute to the disease often make someone with these genetic traits more susceptible to becoming depressed. When discussing hormones, the piece displayed ideas of how hormones change when the brain goes into a depressive state, and certain parts of the brain are more affected than others. Furthermore, regarding hormones, it discusses that because the brain may produce more or less of certain hormones during these periods, it is important for doctors to recognize this in order to treat it with medication effectively. The last biological element exhibited in the article is brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters. First it explains how neurotransmitters work—nerve cells in the brain communicating with one another to perform certain functions. Then it talks about how when your brain is in a depressed mode, the firing of these synapses occurs less frequently. It states that the nerve cells affected most often control “sleep, appetite, sexual drive and perhaps mood.” Treatments are also discussed in this section and are such that antidepressants are used to aid in this issue, because they increase the rate the neurotransmitters work

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