depression as an umbrella term

• #depression
• #mentalhealth
• #psychology

The idea that depression may not be an isolated condition with one shared underlying cause, but rather that it may need to be reframed as an umbrella term for a group of related conditions with identical or very similar symptoms.

For the last several decades, depression has been treated by most modern medical professionals as a serotonin deficiency, treated with SSRIs. However, newer studies indicate that there may be several other possible contributing factors, including:

• tryptophan deficiencey
• gut microbiome dysregulation
• inflammation
• genetics
• epigenetics
• environmental causes (e.g. the stress of life under late stage capitalism, information overload)

In these cases, a prescribed SSRI may help very little, if at all, and there is a possibility that other forms of treatment may be more effective.