Depression And Suicidality - Causation, Symptoms and Treatment

The current economic cost of depression in only the United States is estimated to be $30-44 billion a year. Depression impacts others who care about the ill person, sometimes disrupting family ties or work dynamics between the patient and others, in addition to causing significant pain and suffering that interferes with individual functioning. As a result, the human toll in terms of suffering cannot be overstated.

 

Two-thirds of persons with depression are unaware that they have a treatable condition and refuse to seek help. Only 50% of people diagnosed with serious depression receive any form of treatment. More concerning, a big Canadian study found that 48 percent of patients with suicidal ideation and 24 percent of those who attempted suicide did not receive care or even recognise the need for therapy.

 

The public's persistent ignorance about depression, as well as some health providers' blatant misperceptions of the disease as a personal weakness or failing that can be "willed" or "wished away," leads to painful stigmatisation of sufferers and avoidance of the diagnosis by many people who are affected by the disease.

 

Causation of depression and suicidality

 

Social Factors

 

Even thinking of society as a social phenomenon may be strange, yet renowned sociologist Émile Durkheim thinks that the relation between social structures and suicide is quite strong. If we take a look at suicide data from across a country we'll find that metropolitan cities report much more suicide cases per 100k people than towns or rural areas. This can be explained by the lack of Social Integration in metro cities. Traditional societies are very highly Socially Integrated people knew their role in society and what it meant. Modern society on the other hand makes an individual person feel less important and more dependant on itself.  Every society produces certain circumstances for a certain number of people to end their own life.

Examples of Social Pressures

• Perfectionism
• Performance
• Relationships
• Culture
• Conforming

 

 

Genetic and Biological Factors

 

Depression in the past has simply been regarded as a chemical brain imbalance. In particular, the absence of serotonin generally referred to as the happy feeling hormone, is the only indication that it helped depressed people. However, new findings show that neuronal development and linkage may play a more critical role. The depressed person's hippocampus tends to be substantially smaller than typical and affects memory and emotion. The cause of neuronal degeneration may be stress. When Hippocampus is regenerated mood improves, interestingly Serotonin increasing drugs have an indirect effect on neurogenesis.

According to research, a mutation in the serotonin transporter gene makes people more susceptible to depression. This gene can be short or long, and the study found that persons with one short gene felt depressed after experiencing stressful life events, while those with two short genes did even worse. People with two long genes, on the other hand, were far less likely to get depressed when faced with similar life stress. This, along with a slew of other genetic elements, plays a role in determining a person's defensive system. It's vital to understand that depression is a biologically based illness that you can't simply "get over."

 

Economic Factors

 

According to a recent report from the San Francisco Federal Reserve, suicide rates are greater in wealthy areas when all other factors are equal, a gruesome example of the foolishness of striving to “keep up with the Joneses.”

People who earn 10% less than their neighbors are 4.5 percent more likely to commit suicide, according to researchers from the San Francisco Federal Reserve. Poverty has been linked to an increased risk of suicide, but geography also plays a role. Low-income people who establish roots in wealthy neighborhoods are essentially setting themselves up for failure. They not only have less money to finance a higher cost of living –– health care, housing, and other expenditures are often greater in high-income locations –– but they're also living in the middle of the wealth divide. All of these increases the chance of suicide.

Daniel Wilson, senior economist at the San Francisco Federal Reserve, and two co-authors discovered that when two persons have the same income but reside in different counties, the one who lives in the county with a higher average income is 4.5 percent more likely to commit suicide. It may sound counterintuitive at first, but it makes sense when we consider how we often compare ourselves to people around us.

 

Other Factors

 

·       Gender - While females report more instances of depression than males, this does not always suggest that men suffer from depression at a lower rate. Globally, suicide rates in men are just over twice as high as for women. This can be explained as men tend to “act tough” and bottle up their feelings.

·       Substance Abuse - Substance addiction may exacerbate or provoke the loneliness, misery, and despair that are commonly associated with depression. One-third of persons with significant depression also have an alcohol problem, according to estimates.

·       Death – The death of a loved person might lead to despair and suicidal thoughts.

·    Age - Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in young people.But this doesn't suggest suicide is more likely to occur in youth than in the elderly - it's mostly a reflection of the fact that older populations also die from many other reasons.

Suicides internationally follow a regular trend of the older age group, the greater death rate.

·       Academic Pressure - Our educational system categorises certain pupils as "smart kids with bright futures," leaving the rest of the children to hope. For some individuals, this causes a lot of stress.

 

Signs and symptoms

The symptoms of depression can include:

• a depressed mood
• reduced interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
• a loss of sexual desire
• changes in appetite
• unintentional weight loss or gain
• sleeping too much or too little
• agitation, restlessness, and pacing up and down
• slowed movement and speech
• fatigue or loss of energy
• feelings of worthlessness or guilt
• difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions
• recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, or an attempt at suicide

 

Treatment

 

Depression is curable, and symptom management often consists of three components:

Support: This might take the form of discussing practical solutions and probable problems with family members to educate them.

Psychotherapy: Also referred to as talking therapy, includes one-on-one counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

Antidepressant: Medication may be prescribed by a physician.