Causes | Depression

Causes

Depression can have many causes. Serotonin is also called “mood hormone” because a sufficiently high concentration in the brain suppresses fear, sorrow, aggression and other negative feelings and leads to calm and serenity. Serotonin is also important for a regulated sleep-wake rhythm.

In some depression patients a lack of serotonin or a disturbance of the serotonin metabolism or signaling pathway can be identified as the cause of the symptoms. Such disorders can be inherited, which explains, among other things, the family history of the disease. Various studies have been able to induce an artificial serotonin deficiency in animal models, thereby causing depressive symptoms and proving the role of serotonin in depression.

Thus, drugs to increase the concentration of serotonin were developed and are now firmly established in depression therapy. However, since this messenger substance has many functions, many of them also outside the brain (for example in the gastrointestinal tract), these drugs lead to their typical side effects. A vitamin deficiency can lead to exhaustion and fatigue, which also reduces motivation and drive by worsening the general condition.

If a depression already exists, it can thus be aggravated. However, a vitamin deficiency is not sufficient as the sole trigger of a depressive episode, just as a therapy with vitamins alone cannot cure a depression. A sufficient supply of all essential nutrients should nevertheless supplement the depression therapy in order to prevent possible negative influences.

The influence of the pill on mood is a frequent side effect and is listed as such in the package insert. Hormonal contraceptives should not be regarded as the sole trigger of depression, but if other risk factors are present, they can promote the development of depression and aggravate existing symptoms. The pill should therefore not be taken by patients with depression.

Depression and a burnout syndrome often go hand in hand, but are not the same thing. A burnout always occurs in a specific context, e.g. the workplace. Patients feel overworked and unable to perform, the strain comes gradually and is initially not noticed.

Depression is independent of this and covers the entire everyday life, the patients feel overstrained and incapable even outside of work, and the symptoms can appear all of a sudden. A burnout can trigger depression if the strain is so massive that it affects other areas of life. Depression can also trigger a burnout if the patient’s work and performance suffers from its symptoms.

Depression and burnout can thus be mutually dependent and reinforce each other, but they are not the same and occur independently in many patients. The strong connection between the two clinical pictures is known to physicians and should be taken into account during treatment in order to prevent the development of the other symptomatology or to treat both at the same time. A depression is basically not a disease of the genetic material, i.e. there is not one defect that has been built into the genetic material and leads to exactly this disease with exactly these symptoms.

Nevertheless, a connection between the genetic material passed on by parents and grandparents and the occurrence of depression is suspected. A decisive role is attributed to the messenger substances in the brain (such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine), which can occur in different distributions and play an important role in the development of depression. It is suspected that both the genetic material and stress influence the formation and networking of nerve cells and can thus trigger depression.

However, even this connection has not yet been conclusively scientifically proven. The likelihood of contracting depression is higher if you have one or more family members who suffer from it. However, this connection does not only exist between depressions per se, but also between many psychological illnesses.

However, not every person who has a family history of depression is necessarily affected. Environmental factors, one’s own social network, formative life events and the basic ability to cope with stress (also called resilience) can have a decisive influence on whether, when and to what extent a depression develops. A connection between losses and problematic living conditions and the development of depression is likely.

In addition, the presence or absence of a firm, healthy, partner-like relationship also plays an important role, which can, to a certain extent, act as a protective factor against the occurrence of depression. Depression can also influence the use of addictive substances, often in an unfavourable way. Sometimes increased alcohol consumption is the first or only sign of a depressive mood.

Since many depressed people often find themselves in a spiral of thoughts that can occupy their entire consciousness without leading to a satisfactory result, and which only further depresses them, they often seek “forgetting in the bottle”. Alcohol does not necessarily seem to them to be the solution to their problems, but it can become a way out of bad mood or an escape from illness. In addition, alcohol has a mood-lifting effect by influencing the nerve cells in the brain.

Alcohol consumption releases dopamine, which plays an important role in the brain’s reward response. This makes the patient feel better after drinking alcohol, which encourages him to continue drinking so as not to sink into the bad mood again. This connection plays an important role in the interaction of alcohol, drugs that have a similar effect, and depression.

Alcohol abuse and depression reinforce each other. Depressive people resort to alcohol more often than non-depressive people, because the intoxication numbs the symptoms for a short time and provides relief for the patients. In the long term, however, this makes depression worse, as alcohol is a poison for the body and the psyche and also worsens the state of health. Alcoholism and other addictions are the result.