Entrapment and Defeat Perceptions in Depressive Symptomatology: Through an Evolutionary Approach (original) (raw)

Stuck in a rut: rethinking depression and its treatment

Trends in Neurosciences, 2011

The current definition of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) emerged from efforts to create reliable diagnostic criteria for clinical and research use. However, despite decades of research, the neurobiology of MDD is largely unknown, and treatments are no more effective today than they were 50-70 years ago. We propose that the current conception of depression is misguiding basic and clinical research. Redefinition is necessary and may include a focus on a more narrowly defined set of core symptoms. However, we conclude that depression is better defined as the tendency to enter into, and inability to disengage from, a negative mood state rather than the mood state per sé. The implications for future clinical and basic research are discussed.

Depressed mood states and their inter-relationship with clinical depression

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 1997

A study was conducted to contrast depressed mood states in those positive and negative for lifetime depressive syndromes. A non-clinical cohort of 156 subjects was assessed on four occasions over 15 years, with 35% having had a major depression and 22% a minor depression at the most recent assessment. At 5yearly reviews, estimates were obtained of episode frequency, duration and symptom patterns during depressed mood states. Such characteristics were then contrasted across the three groups of those who had experienced major depression, those who had suered minor depression and lifetime non-cases. Depressive states were armed by at least 96% of subjects at each assessment, with the mean number of episodes per assessment year ranging from 8.6 to 21.2. Those who had experienced a lifetime episode of major depression differed from the two contrast groups (i.e. those with minor depression; non-cases) in having more episodes and more features during episodes. By contrast, there was a gradient across the three groups for two other examined features, with those having major depression being more likely than those with minor depression, who in turn were more likely than the non-cases to have longer episodes and a greater number of symptoms. The greater frequency, severity and duration of depressed mood states in those who met lifetime criteria for a major depressive episode suggest that their threshold to onset and persistence of a variety of depressive experiences is lowered, so supporting a general vulnerability hypothesis.

The social competition hypothesis of depression

The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1994

Depressive personality and depressive illness are examined from an evolutionary adaptationist standpoint. It is postulated that the depressive state evolved in relation to social competition, as an unconscious, involuntary losing strategy, enabling the individual to accept defeat in ritual agonistic encounters and to accommodate to what would otherwise be unacceptably low social rank.