Life events and depression

Abstract

It is now commonly accepted that depression results from a combination of biological and psychosocial factors, in which the events of life appear to play a major role. Over the last 15 years there has been an increase in the number of controlled studies investigating the relationship of life events to the genesis of depression. This paper reviews some of the major findings. Although the results are not consistent, the evidence suggests that, compared with controls, more adults with depression tend to have experienced parental loss in early childhood and other loss situations as well as more recent stressful life events such as marital strife, serious illness, etc. Events which imply a threat, impair self-esteem and promote interpersonal discord often play a role in precipitating factors in their illness, and the few studies which have been carried out on the influence of life events after the onset of depression indicate that they can have a profound effect on the recovery process and response to therapy. However, one of the core questions still unanswered by these studies is why life events can act as predisposing or precipitating factors in clinical depression in some people but not in others who are able to live through such experience relatively unaffected. It may well be that other factors such as genetic, environmental, psychological and biological ones contribute to the predisposition or vulnerability of the depressive. Animal models, although not fully applicable to depression in human adults, have proved promising and may provide useful new approaches in research.