"The interaction of tyramine with MAOIs can bring on a hypertensive crisis (a sharp increase in blood pressure) that can lead to a stroke."

"Psychotherapy can be helpful in cases of normal depression and can help insure the condition does not become chronic."

Causes of Depression


Substantial evidence from neuroscience, genetics, and clinical investigation shows that depressive illnesses are disorders of the brain. However, the precise causes of these illnesses continue to be a matter of intense research.

Modern brain imaging technologies reveal that, in depression, neural circuits responsible for the regulation of moods, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior fail to function properly, and critical neurotransmitterschemicals that brain cells use to communicate are out of balance. Studies of brain chemistry, including the effects of antidepressant medications, continue to inform our understanding of the biochemical processes involved in depression.

In some families, depressive disorders seem to occur generation after generation; however, they can also occur in people with no family history of these illnesses. Genetics research indicates that risk for depression results from the influence of multiple genes acting together with environmental or other nongenetic factors.
Very often, a combination of genetic, cognitive, and environmental factors is involved in the onset of a depressive disorder. Trauma, loss of a loved one, a difficult relationship, a financial problem, or any stressful change in life patterns, whether the change is unwelcome or desired, can trigger a depressive episode in vulnerable individuals. Later episodes of depression may occur without an obvious cause.

"The Food and Drug Administration issued a Public Health Advisory on February 10, 2000 that stated that St John's wort appears to affect an important metabolic pathway that is used by many drugs prescribed to treat conditions such as AIDS, heart disease, depression, seizures, certain cancers, and rejection of transplants and therefore, health care providers should alert their patients about these potential drug interactions."

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"About 9 million Americans of all ages are living with a current or past diagnosis of cancer and people who face a cancer diagnosis will experience many stresses and emotional upheavals."

Stress Reliever Desktop Game

"Efforts are underway to develop a skin patch system for one of the newer MAOIs, selegiline."

Stress Diathesis Model Of Anxiety Disorders

"There are several types of antidepressant medications used to treat depressive disorders like newer medications chiefly the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) the tricyclics, and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)."

Stress And Depression Tests

"Two of the short term psychotherapies that research has shown to be effective for depression are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and interpersonal therapy (IPT)."

Course Management Stress Training

"Some people with milder forms of depression may do well with psychotherapy alone and people with moderate to severe depression most often benefit from antidepressants, but most do best with combined treatment: medication to gain relatively quick symptom relief and psychotherapy to learn more effective ways to deal with life's problems, including depression."