Depression : what everyone needs to know / [print]
Jonathan Rottenberg.
- New York : Oxford University Press, (c)2022.
- xi, 178 pages ; (c)22 cm.
- What everyone needs to know .
- What everyone needs to know. .
Includes bibliographies and index.
I. Definitions of depression -- The challenge of defining depression -- The syndrome of clinical depression -- When should I worry that I might be depressed? -- The prevalence of depression -- The consequences of depression -- II. Origins of depression and the depression epidemic -- Biological contributions to depression -- Environmental and psychological contributions to depression -- Depression throughout the life course -- Depression over time -- Why is there an epidemic of depression? -- III. Remedies for depression -- What are my treatment options? -- What can the depressed person do for themself? -- How to talk about depression and help a depressed person -- IV. Life after depression -- What is the long-term prognosis for depression? -- Life after depression -- Charting a new future for depression.
"This chapter grapples with the challenges of defining depression, including challenges that arise from our imprecise use of language. Depression is at its core a kind of mood state. Mood states organize our minds and our bodies and motivate us to pursue goals. It is possible to understand depression by focusing on the scientific principles that explain why humans and other organisms have mood. A key goal is to become a more educated consumer of one's own mood and to understand the forces that operate on mood more generally. This framework can allow us to understand why people become depressed, why depression has occurred over human history, and why depression might be epidemic in some periods in human history, including the present day"--