Understanding depression: A translational approach

by Randolph M. Nesse, David Nutt, Lewis Wolpert

Depression is a major cause of morbidity throughout the world. Given that between 8 and 12% of the population (in most countries) will suffer from depression at some point in their lives, it is clearly a significant public health problem. As our knowledge of this illness has expanded in recent years, it has become clear that depression can no longer be viewed as a simple disorder of the brain. It has to be seen as a series of behavioural and biological changes that span mind, brain, genes, and body--indeed, affecting both psychological and physical health.

This book brings together world leaders in research on depression to discuss, for the first time, in an interdisciplinary setting, both classical and innovative ideas to understand this devastating disorder. It presents neurobiological, psyschological, genetic, and evolutionary models with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms linking the brain to the endocrine and the immune systems, and therefore, linking depression to physical health.

Opening with a powerful, personal account of depression that conveys something of the all-consuming, debilitating nature of this illness, the book then presents cutting-edge research from those at the frontier of work in this area. The book is valuable for all those in the brain sciences seeking a state-of-the-art review of this global problem.

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2009

About the author

Randolph M. Nesse, MD is Professor of Life Sciences and ASU Foundation Professor at Arizona State University, where he became the Founding Director of the Center for Evolution Medicine in 2014. He was previously Professor of Psychiatry and of Psychology at the University of Michigan where he led the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program and helped to establish one of the world’s first anxiety disorders clinics. His research on the neuroendocrinology of anxiety evolved into studies on why aging exists. Those studies led to collaboration with the evolutionary biologist George Williams on "Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine," a book that initiated much new work in the field of evolutionary medicine. His current research is on how selection shapes mechanisms that regulate defenses such as pain, fever, anxiety and low mood. Closely related work investigates the origins and functions of emotions, why emotional disorders are so common, and how social selection shaped human capacities for altruism and moral emotions. His mission is to establish evolutionary biology as a basic science for medicine. Dr. Nesse is the President of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine & Public Health. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Sciences, and an elected Fellow of the AAAS.