Depression

Biological Effect
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/cau_02.html

• Brain Function
• Limbic System
• Affects your mood and behavior
• (body temperature, sleep, appetite, sexual drive, stress reaction, etc.)
• Neurotransmitters and Nuerons
• Affect the moods.
• Can be regulated by antidepressants increasing the amount of norepinephrine but people with depression may also have high levels of norepinephrine already.
• Hormones and Endocrine System
• Endocrine system keeps hormones from becoming too much by feedback.
• Depression makes it so that the feedback is not as productive as it should be.
• Hormone Irregularities associate with depression like sleeping or eating habits that undergo change.
• May be a symptom of disorgers in organs that produce hormones; thyroid disorders, Cushing's syndrome, and Addison's disease.
• Cortisol is the excess hormone in the blood that appears in depressed patients.
• The hypothalamus influences the pituitary to produce corticotrophic-releasing hormone, disregarding the amount of cortisol, (to depressed patients)

Environmental Causes of Depression
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5435189_environmental-causes-depression.html

• Stress Buildup
• Work, School, Bills
• Traumas
• The death of a loved one, criminal actions towards the one who is depressed.
• Childhood Abuse
• Sexual or Physical abuse
• Lack of coping skills
• Separation

Cognitive Depression
http://www.md-phc.com/puntil/ccausesof.htm

• Information is processed negatively:
• Arbitrary inference: Conclusion drawn from evidence that is irrational.
• Selective Abstraction: Focusin on the negative aspect of a situation.
• Overgeneralization: Carry rules based on experiences
• Magnification and minimization: Focus on undesirable events and disregard the desirable.
• Personalization: External events are related to oneself without evidence.
• All-or-Nothing Thinking: Black and White. No Gray.

Cognitive Triad
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=564306

The idea that everything around you and yourself, and your future is viewed in a negative manner.

• Negative Triad
• Achieved through early experience.

Self-viewed negativity- Failure
World viewed negativity- "Everyone's against me"
Future viewed negativity- Unaccomplished person