Social separation models of depression

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511550072.017

16 - Social separation models of depression

from Part VII - Affective illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010

Keith Matthews

Edited by

Maria A. Ron and

Trevor W. Robbins

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Keith Matthews: Affiliation:
Ninewells Medical School, Dundee, UK
Maria A. Ron: Affiliation:
Institute of Neurology, London
Trevor W. Robbins: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

Introduction

The clinical presentations that attract the label ‘depression’ represent a major public health concern because of their high prevalence, stigma, morbidity and mortality. Despite best efforts, research has, thus far, failed to illuminate a plausible pathophysiology of depression, to explain why some individuals are more at risk than others or to explain the efficacy of available treatments. Modelling pathophysiological states in experimental animals has proven an effective strategy in improving our understanding of many other major medical conditions and has led to the development of better treatments. In this chapter, I shall review a range of work with experimental animals that may contribute to our eventual understanding of some aspects of depression. This review focuses on the manipulation of social environment as a means of perturbing physiology and behaviour and attempts to relate findings from animal studies to core clinical concepts.

What is depression?

Depression is a common, complex and poorly understood condition. Perhaps because the same word is used to describe the brief periods of unhappiness and disappointment that everyone experiences in response to minor life upsets, there is a popular view that depression is a relatively trivial and self-limiting problem. The reality is very different.

It (depression) was the worst experience of my life. More terrible even than watching my wife die of cancer … I was in a state that bears no resemblance to anything I had experienced before, I was not just feeling low … I was seriously ill.

(Wolpert 1999)

I was feeling in my mind a sensation close to, but indescribably different from pain … for myself, the pain is most closely connected to drowning or suffocation — but even these images are off the mark.

(Styron 1992)

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Type: Chapter
Information: Disorders of Brain and Mind , pp. 338 - 372

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550072.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2003

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