The biological theory of depression tells us that depression is not caused by our minds or by our environment, rather by factors inside the body. This implies that unemployment, personal relationships or our surroundings are irrelevant factors and uneffective sources of depression, because the feeling is caused by chemical imbalances in the body. For example, it is considered that a lack of noradrenalin and serotonin in the body is the neurobiological cause for depression.
Depression is mainly linked to serotonin, which is a chemical produced by the raphe nuclei, a group of nuclei located in the brain. Serotonin is in charge of modulating things such as anger, anxiety, sexuality, appetite, mood, etc. According to this theory, people who suffer from depression have impaired production of the substance. Although serotonin is not the only factor that can cause depression, most antidepressants are serotonergic, aka increase the levels of serotonin in the body.
SOURCES:
WIKIPEDIA.ORG
HERKULES.OULU.FI
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