Abstract

Abdulfatai T. Bakare*, Shaibu O. Bello, Abdulgafar O. Jimoh, Musa Yerima and Yusuf I. Alkali

ABSTRACT

Depression is a multifactorial, chronic, and life-threatening disease characterised by unusual feelings of sadness, reduced energy, social withdrawal, lack of motivation, sexual dysfunction, sleep disorders (in 75% of the patients), nightmares, depressed mood, anhedonia, worthlessness, feelings of guilt, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts are the main symptoms of depression.[1] All of these symptoms hurt physical and social functioning. About 80% of all people facing depression have some form of impairment in their daily functioning. Globally, over 700 thousand people with depression die by suicide every year.[2]Depression may affect everyone regardless of age, gender or race. The pathophysiology of depression is still poorly understood. Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain its mechanism.[3] The biogenic amine (monoamine) hypothesis was the first. According to this hypothesis, the typical symptoms of depression are the results of a changed concentration of monoamines or incorrect monoaminergic transmission. This is described by the Basic Emotion Theory (BET), put forward for the first time in the 1950s. Environmental stressors are another set of factors associated with the development of depressive disorder including job loss, death of a spouse, divorce, unwanted pregnancy, social isolation, rape, war, etc. About 280 million people are documented as suffering from depression.[4]