Stress Starts Up The Machinery of Major Depression

[Northerner]

It's hard not to be pulled by the sheer terror of some exotic diseases. Headlines are commanded by the tragedies of the likes of Ebola virus, mad-cow disease or progeria. But when it comes to everyday medical misery, nothing quite beats major depression. It sucks the very air out of life, cripples millions of people (about 15% of us) and, within a decade, is likely to be the second leading cause of global medical disability.

Many factors increase the risk of major depression, including variants of a number of genes, childhood trauma and endocrine and immunological abnormalities. A frequent trigger is stress. Recent research shows how this might occur.

The stress angle concerns "anhedonia," psychiatric jargon for "the inability to feel pleasure." Anhedonia is at the core of the classic definition of major depression as "malignant sadness."

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