Definition of Neurotransmitters
Depression can happen to anyone. It is a disease that is caused by an abnormality in the delivery of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. Neurotransmitters are like messengers and carry information to neurons. Once they have sent their “message”, they are able to become reabsorbed through the original neuron. This is a process called reuptake. The amazing thing about neurotransmitters is that some of them can cause the neurons to fire, while others actually inhibit them from firing. Even more interesting, some of them can do both excite and inhibit.
Depression can be caused by many different things. Life can throw a person a huge curve ball and every one deals with hardships differently. No matter what the cause, the brain is working all the time. A neurotransmitter that is highly linked with depression is serotonin. Serotonin is involved with the regulation of sleep, mood, attention, and learning. Imagine not having enough of this, and how the body would react. Causes for this could be that not enough serotonin was produced; there wasn’t enough receptor sites for the serotonin, it is being used up before it can even reach the receptor sites, or the molecules that facilitate the serotonin might be short in supply. These are just a few of the reasons why depression could occur, and it doesn’t even begin to cover how many other reasons there could be.
Drugs are common with treating depression because there is obviously an imbalance and so the body can’t always fix it on its own. The only problem with using medication is that sometimes the body can become addicted to the medication and the way it makes them feel. Most of the time with depression medicine, a doctor will slowly have to wean a p...
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Conclusion
The purpose of this paper is to expose that depression is simply an imbalance in the brain that can most of the time be fixed with an antidepressant. No matter how the depression may come about, there are three pretty reliable drugs that can really help get the neurotransmitters back to normal. A doctor and/or psychiatrist can figure out what exactly is going on in the brain and can prescribe an antidepressant according to that. This paper also explains that maladaptive behaviors can be a resulting coping mechanism of depression, and when alcohol is involved, it can have an effect on a body’s health. This is especially true when a person is taking additional medication. All in all, when the neurotransmitters aren’t working correctly due to depression, there are safe and effective drugs that can be prescribed that can help fix the problem.
Depression is a serious issue that has no single cause. Depression is likely a combination of many factors such as genetic, biochemical, psychological and environmental. According to research, depressive illnesses are indications of disorders of the brain. Depression can affect all ages and all parts of society. Periods of sadness, irritability, fatigue, and loss of interest are some symptoms of depression.
In the disease of alcoholism, there are many psychological effects on the person. It can cause depression, anxi...
The notion of an individualized chemical imbalance founded in the brain as the explanation of depression, whether it is norepinephrine and serotonin, is a theory which is built on a particular kind of logic that attempts to isolate a causal neurochemical abnormality as giving rise to or generating depressive symptoms. The drugs which are utilize to treat these abnormalities, were shown in the last chapter to be a crucial component in the creation of depressive pathology insofar as they were reasoned or designed to correct them. Within a society that values the biomedical intervention of psychopharmaceuticals in the treatment of depression there is an in...
Antidepressant are a form of pharmacotherapy treatment developed to treat the symptoms of major depression. Antidepressants are used for many other types of conditions including anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, dysthymia, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, and substance abuse, pain syndromes, gastrointestional disorders. Antidepressants usually require several weeks to notice significant effects. There are no antidepressants or any medication that is completely free of adverse effects. This article explains that the adverse effects of antidepressant can decrease compliance and slow down the rate of recovery. It is important for one to take note of potential side-effects before choosing the best antidepressant to suit their personalized needs. Statistics show that about 28 percent of patients sto...
Through my extensive research on depression I have learned a lot of new things. I have learned about the many forms of depression and treatment for depression. I have also learned a little about what is believed to go on chemically in the brain of a clinically depressed person. I was also able to partially determine what sort of role genetics, chemicals and personal influences in the brain. Though I was unable to determine exactly how environmental and personal stress can cause a chemical imbalance in a person, I was even able to speculate about this issue and determine some theories of my own on why and how this may happen.
There are many different types of psychological disorders present for diagnoses. As well as many forms of treatment methods available focused on the remedial process for the individual. Each treatment often target on a different aspect for the individual, these aspects may include personal skills and coping, cognitive, social aspects, behavioural etc… Therapies can also be combined together to improve results for the patient depending on the patient’s situation and condition. Depression is one of the conditions under mood disorders and can be very influential on the individual’s life and daily activity functioning which may lead to significant consequences if left untreated. In this paper, I will explore the topic of psychodynamic treatments for depression. This paper will discuss about this area of treatment methods in detail and how they work to help the individual as well as comparing and contrasting other treatment methods and their effects on patients to explore which treatment are more effective.
Depression is a mood disorder causing a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. The cause of depression is not always chemical imbalances. It is a more complex disorder, where individuals do not understand the disease have to consider depression could be from a medical condition, trauma, life circumstances, and genetic vulnerability.
Depression is an equal opportunity disorder, it can affect any group of people with any background, race, gender, or age. Depression is a sneak thief that slips quietly and gradually into people’s lives - robbing them of their time, and their focus. At first, depression may be undetectable, but in the long run a person could become so weighed down that their life may feel empty and meaningless. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who commits suicide is depressed, but majority of people who commits suicide do so during a severe depressive episode. There are over 300 million people in the world today who suffer from depression. Depression has affected people for a long as records have been kept. It was first called out by the famous Greek philosopher Hippocrates over 2,400 years ago. Hippocrates called it “melancholia”. Many times we think of depression as one disorder alone, when in fact there are many different types of depression. The different types of depression are major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, atypical disorder, adjustment disorder, and depressive personality disorder. All types of depression share at least one common symptom. It is commons from the person who suffers from any form of depression to feel an unshakable sadness, anxious, or empty mood. Major depressive disorder also known as unipolar depression or recurrent depressive disorder is the most severe depressive disorder out of all of the depressive in my estimation. Major depressive disorder is a condition in which affects a person’s family, work or school life, sleeping, eating and general health. It is important to emphasize that we can understand the mechanics of this disorder and how it affects people with major depressive disorder.
The exact causes of depression seem to differ immensely, but there are some who believe that it maybe caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, or that it may even be hereditary. Still there are others who believe that it is a combination of social, biological, emotional, psychological, and economical influences that may cause someone who has no family history of depression to develop even a mild case of depression.
Depression does not have a lone cause. An individual gene cannot handle mood or spur up depression. However, genes can influence the way nerve pathways perform. Multiple genes cooperate to evolve a susceptibility to depression. In addition to the biological aspect of depression, neurotransmitters and hormones are chemicals that allow nerve cells to communicate. Not only do they control mood and emotions, but the way these chemicals are broken down may add to the growth of
Depression is a mental illness, which affects millions of Americans each year. Currently there are many prescription drugs, called anti-depressants that have been proven to successfully treat it. The causes of depression are somewhat of a medical enigma, however, it is known that depression is associated with a change in the brains chemistry involving the function of neurotransmitters (Reichert). This chemical change occurs in healthy brain’s, which experience sadness, but ends after the unpleasant stimulus is removed. In people suffering from depression this chemical change does not correspond to any particular stimulus. Symptoms of depression are often incapacitating and include severe and extended sadness, feelings of worthlessness, feelings of emptiness, irritability and anxiety (Reichert, Spake).
Depression is much more common than most people think. Because it is essentially an invisible illness and is largely in the mind, it is difficult to correctly diagnose it and most people suffer for months, years, or even decades with depression. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines depression as “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty with thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal thoughts or an attempt to commit suicide.” Most medical definitions are able to explain what happens and why it does, but after carefully examining this one, we only notice that it explains what happens, but not why. Usually, the symptoms of an illness are...
Major depression, in itself, is a debilitating mental disorder that negatively impacts most or all aspects of a sufferer’s life and often times can even lead to suicide. Just to give a few numbers, at least 1 million people worldwide every year take their own life (Hawton and Heeringen 1372-81), half of which are caused by the possession and improper or unsuccessful treatment of major depression (Chehil and Kutcher 30-33). In light of these dark statistics, the benefits and limitations of the main treatments for major depression, antidepressants and psychotherapy, are not only worth investigation, but with thousands of lives on line, vital to the human race. However, to take it further, there is much to be said of human nature in general as it relates to how people respond to the biological treatment of antidepressants as opposed to the cognitive and sociocultural treatment of psychotherapy. Is it possible that the various symptoms of sadness and hopelessness characteristic of major depression can be cured simply by balancing the chemical messengers in charge of happiness and motivation in the brain or must the need to be perceived and understood through therapy be satisfied? Are we, as humans, simply biological machines, or is there something more?
Depression isn’t just a state of being, or someone’s mood. There are different types of depression, and each of those types have their own lists of symptoms and treatments, all similar but they have some differences.
Depression is one of the most common psychological problems. Each year over 17 million Americans experience a period of clinical depression. Thus, depression affects nearly everyone through personal experiences or through depression in a family member or friend.