Depression is arguably one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorders and the World Health Organisation estimates that there are about 350 million sufferers worldwide (WHO, 2012). Depression is defined as a mood disorder where individuals experience long periods of clinical depression, this makes the sufferer’s ability to function normally each day extremely difficult and also causes great distress for the individual (Davey, 2015). Sutherland (1998) described “feelings of utter despondency, worthlessness, guilt, inability to concentrate and a loss of self-regard” (p. 101) in his own account of depression and suggests that these symptoms can be accompanied by high levels of anxiety. Other symptoms Sutherland (1998) mentions include changes in eating and sleeping patterns, a slowness of speech, thought processing and bodily movement and an increase in negative thoughts. There are various explanations for the causes of major depression and this essay will compare and contrast two of the most dominant explanations which are biological and psychological explanations. The biological factors that will be …show more content…
As a result of these high concordance rates they suggest that depression is more likely to occur in family members than the general population, in addition the higher concordance rate of depression for monozygotic twins compared to dizygotic twins suggests a genetic basis for depression (McGuffin et al, 1991). Sullivan, Neale and Kendler (2000) found substantial support for the role of genetics, however they also suggest environmental factors also facilitate the development of depression. In fact they suggest due to the complexity of depression it is the interplay of genetics and the environment which causes the development of