Posted by Dr. Bob on June 12, 2001, at 8:04:32
In reply to RYAN - Anxiety/Depression/ Somatoform, posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
What we have so far is a lot of genetic evidence that there is probably a common set of genes (a handful, not one or two) which predispose to both depression and anxiety disorders. However, these genes just make people liable and don't, of themselves, completely determine what happens. Life events and other experiences then push some people into anxiety or depressive disorders. It looks like many people develop anxiety first and then subsequently have episodes of depression (more often than depression first and then later anxiety). We do not yet know if successfully treating an anxiety disorder decreases the risk for subsequent depression, but that would seem to be a very promising approach.
Mike De Bellis, Joan Kaufman, and others have done nice work looking at abuse and PTSD in children and the course and biological changes. That is a separate and very important topic. The life events I was talking about leading to depression were not catastrophic events but rather those events which are more normative but still negative (e.g. death of parent, moving, etc.).
poster:Dr. Bob
thread:193
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/child/20000813/msgs/229.html