This document discusses symptoms, causes, and treatments for depression. It lists common symptoms like difficulty concentrating, fatigue, guilt, and changes in appetite or sleep. It describes warning signs of suicide for those with depression, such as talking about death, losing interests, and putting affairs in order. The brain regions affected by depression are also outlined. Depression can affect people of any age but is more common in teenagers and adults around age 40. Heredity and gender also influence depression risk, with women being more than twice as likely to experience depression as men. Common antidepressant medications work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

1. Depression
By: Rebecca Jones

2. Symptoms of Depression
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making
decisions
• Fatigue and decreased energy
• Feeling of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
• Insomnia, early morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping
• Irritability, restlessness
• Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable,
including sex
• Overeating or appetite loss
• Persistent aches and pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive
problems that do not ease with treatment
• Persistent sad, anxious, or empty feeling
• Thoughts of suicide and/or suicide attempts

3. Warning Signs of Suicide with Depression
• A Sudden switch from being very happy to being very calm or
appearing to be happy
• Always talking or thinking about death
• Clinical depression (deep sadness, loss of interest, trouble
sleeping, and eating) that gets worse
• Having a death wish, tempting fate by taking risks that could
lead to death, like driving thru red lights
• Losing interests in things that one used to care about
• Making comments about being hopeless, helpless, and worthless
• Putting affairs in order, tying up loose ends, changing a will
• Saying things like “it would be better if I wasn’t here” or “I
want out”
• Talking about suicide (kills ones self)
• Visiting or calling people one cares about

5. The Brain…
Depression strikes all
over the brain, involving
the cerebeal cortex,
amygdala, hippocampus,
hypothalamus, and other
regions.
Major Depression also
affect the frontal lobes,
lowering the ability to
reason while ratcheting up
emotional limbic system.
In depressed people the
turnoff switch by which
thinking controls emotions
isn’t working properly.

6. Depression can strike anyone!
Children as young as 5or 6 can experience
symptoms that resemble depression in
adults.
The onset of true depression increases
sharply during the teenage years, then
gradually rises to peak around age 40.
Average onset age is 30 with treatment
beginning usually about 3 years later.

7. Hereditary
Heredity plays a role in the likelihood of
developing depression. Say if one twin
in a pair of identical twins is diagnosed
with clinical depression the other has a
70% chance of also having depression.

8. Gender and Depression
Women are more than twice as likely to
become depressed as men.
Men are also more likely to hide
depression from themselves and others
by self medicating with alcohol or drugs
or working excessive long hours.

9. Medications for depression
Depression arises from
imbalances of
neurotransmitters.
Many antidepressants
increase the amount of
the serotonin in the
synapses.
After 2 or 3 weeks the
release of serotonin
causes the receiving
neuron to become more
sensitive to its
presence.

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Paolucci, Susan L., MD; Paolucci, Stephen J., MD; Buckley, Sandra A..
Depression FAQs.
Hamilton, ON, CAN: B.C. Decker, 2007.