Most mental illnesses are now viewed as disorders of the communication systems within the brain – the neurotransmitters that speed signals from neuron to neuron. Many also have a clear genetic component. And the effects of a person’s environment, particularly psychological traumas and long-term stresses, are also important factors. Many people with depression secrete too much cortisol, a stress hormone. Read the following article filled with eye opening statistics about depression: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/depression-statistics_n_6480412.html (Links to an external site.). Define depression in your own everyday terms. Do a little research and come up with a plan to medically diagnose and treat people destined to suffer from depression before showing symptoms so that these patients may not suffer or have to suffer less symptoms of depression. It may seem in this day and age that this would be possible.

Prepare a one-page, 250 word paper, analyzing the issue above. Make sure you cite a reliable scientific website to back up your work (think National Geographic, PBS, Discovery, Smithsonian, New Scientist, Nature, Scientific American, Science Daily, New Science, The Guardian, Science News, Biology News, Popular Science, The New York Times Science Section, The Scientist). Do not quote from a website/source or you will lose points. You need to synthesize what you are reading and then answer the question in your own words.