Depression is characterized by
- Feelings of despair and hopelessness
- Self hatred
- Thoughts of suicide very often leading to suicide attempts
- Inability to experience pleasure
- Feelings of, or actual isolation
- Disturbed sleep, insomnia
- Inability to concentrate
- Fatigue or loss of energy
Serotonin is a molecule which certain brain cells use to communicate with each other (see the animated gif above). Depression is always associated with a drop in the level of serotonin in the patients brain. Drugs which are used to alleviate depression work (mainly) by raising the level of serotonin in the brain.
There has been a great deal of research about depression recently. Because the disease is so very prevalent, drugs such as Prozac are making the drug companies a lot of money, and of course have been getting a lot of publicity. In short depression is trendy in the medical profession. Not that I'm complaining since it has eventually led to me getting more effective treatment. My experience suggests however that the disease is still not well understood even amongst the medical profession.
The Neurobiology of Depression an article from Scientific American which describes the physiological aspects of depression
General Depression Links
Walkers in Darkness is a very good site for information on depression and other mood disorders. Though it does seem to have lots of broken links at the moment.
Depression.com is another major site.
Alt.Support.Depression/FAQ Dr Ivan's depression Central - aims to be a comprehensive depression resource on the web. Depression - a very long list of links. The Lancet - has articles about all kinds of medical topics and includes a section on medicine and the arts. Must register as a user to access articles. Suite 101 - Depression Links with a rating and annotation - very useful
http://www.geocities.com/mjattwood_nz/depression.html
