When it comes to depression, or any other type of illness for that matter, many people never really stop and think about its history. Individuals that find out they are dealing with a condition like this do not want to know what happened in the past. They only want to know what is going on in the future. What types of treatment options are available and what can be done in order to help them deal with it now. While this is information that is needed, it is also very important to learn about the past as well. How have certain treatments come to be? What was effective before? What has been found to be effective now? When you learn about all of these things you are going to be able to deal with your depression a little bit better. Things begin to make more sense and treatment options begin to make more sense.
It seems that during the prehistoric times, depression was thought to be caused by an imbalance in the four different bodily fluids that were called humors. These were also contributed to helping form the personality types of individuals as well. The dominate humor was thought to be the cause of the personality that the person had.
Later many professionals started to draw on their own experiences and they began to look at depression a little bit differently. In fact, there were many professionals that started to view depression as a disturbance in the soul that is related to a moral conflict that is within the individual. This was an entirely new spin on depression but when you stop and think about it, it is very closely related to cognitive behavioral therapy. The individual must be able to see what struggles and conflicts they are facing in order to be able to deal with the depression.
As time went on, depression and its causes continued to change. In the 20th and 21st centuries depression was starting to be viewed as a conflict between society and a person’s ability to self actualize and to see their full potential. This was the view that was being taken by humanists. By the time that the mid 20th century came around there were many researchers that started the theory that depression was caused by a chemical imbalance in the neurotransmitters in the brain.
In the 1970’s there were clinicians that started to use the term major depressive disorder. This term was then placed into the DSM-III in 1980. This was related to the need for diagnostic criteria that would be related to the symptoms that someone would be experiencing when they were dealing with depression.
Throughout history there have been many different tests developed to help diagnose just about any medical condition that you can imagine. However, you need to know that there is not really a test that can be given in order to diagnose depression. History has helped with the development of the mental status examine by most of the time depression is going to be diagnosed by an individual’s self reports. Many times the doctor is going to order other medical tests that will be used to help rule out other conditions that may exhibit some of the same symptoms as depression but there is not really a depression tests or lab work that can be ordered by a doctor.
It is important to know that over the years professionals have continually changed what they believed to be the cause of depression. Today it is thought to be caused by a number of different factors that can range from psychological, hereditary and even biological. It is also important to realize that everyone can be different. In fact, there are even some medications that can cause the symptoms of depression if they have been used for a long time. All of this should be taken into consideration if you are dealing with depression or you know someone that is dealing with these symptoms.
It is easy to see that the causes of depression and mental illness have changed over time. The same is true for the treatment options that a person is going to have. What is important to remember is that someone who is dealing with depression is going to want to determine what may be causing his or her depression. This will increase the likelihood of finding and implementing a proper treatment. While new studies are done all of the time, and new theories are continually arriving in the medical field, it is very important to understand where the study of depression once was to fully understand where it is now. When you have a full understanding of the causes of depression you are going to be more likely to seek treatment. It creates hope and it helps you see that this has been struggled with by many for years.
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