Beyond the blue: How the brain gets depressed and how it can be treated

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Depression is a mental illness affecting around 19 million Americans today. Ranging from severe to mild, this disease has turned over the lives of those affected. Unlike other diseases, however, depression (along with other mental illnesses) carries an extreme social stigma that prevents many sufferers from seeking help or even acknowledging their illness. This means that the estimated number of depressed people may actually be higher than believed.

Severe depression can significantly increase the risk of an individual attempting or completing suicide. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, worldwide, a person attempts suicide every 6 seconds – with a huge percentage of these individuals afflicted with depression.

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Many health professionals and biomedical engineers are then racing to understand the mechanisms of this illness. By finding out which area of the brain is affected by depression, biomedical engineers hope to create better treatment plans and/or devices that could save millions of lives worldwide.

As the name suggests, depression causes a series of hormonal imbalances in the brain. The "depressed" area often lacks several highly important chemicals. The depressed person is often characterized by being "down" or lethargic. Oftentimes, depressed individuals have no energy to perform daily tasks and often complain of being tired or sick. This is why those who seek treatment are often given medicines that encourage the production of the deficient chemicals.

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Unfortunately, depression is also brought about by a mixture of several factors other than purely physical ones. Many mental health professionals recommend a fusion of both psychology and medical advances to treat this illness. Still, many depressed people talk about the benefits of medication and how regulating hormonal fluctuations has made psychotherapy more effective.

The biomedical industry is still determining the exact relationship between the brain and mental illnesses, but hopefully alternative treatments will be developed in order to save many lives.

Biomedical engineering aims to understand the human body and create effective treatment options and/or devices that alleviate painful symptoms. Learn more by subscribing to this Riyesh R. Menon blog.