About 7% of the US population is suffering from depression that needs medical attention. The number of people who have suffered at one time or another in their life from depression is about three times as high. According to the World Health Organization, women are two to three times more likely to develop a depression than are men.

Medical scientists believe that the tendency for depression is at least in part caused by hereditary factors. People who have gone through a bout of depression once have a higher risk of falling ill again.

Symptoms of depression
Doctors suspect that certain ‘neurotransmitters’ - chemical agents that carry nerve signals- like serotonin and noradrenalin aren’t working efficiently in a person prone to depression. The reasons for this deficiency are believed to be genes and hereditary factors.

The most common symptoms of depression are:
A general feeling of being ‘low’
Loss of appetite and loss of weight or, in some cases, increased appetite and weight gain
Insomnia, that is, the inability to sleep well
Loss of concentration
indecisiveness
General exhaustion and lack of energy
Suicidal tendencies and suicide attempts

Clinical depression
The term clinical depression, also called major depression refers to a medical term for any type of depression that needs some sort of treatment in order to alleviate it. Doctors also tend to use it as an umbrella term to cover various forms of depression.
Clinical depression is a rather serious medical condition, to the extent of being ‘chronic’ depression, which can be a prolonged problem. It can affect not only a person’s mood and thoughts, but also the person’s physical being. In other words, it can affect the person as a whole.

Teen depression
Depression in teenagers is very common these days. The reason is that teenagers need to face a lot of problems such as difficulty in studies, abusive relationships, problem in relationships, and tiff with parents and family due to generation gap.
With so much changes going on inside the body and external environments, a teenager tends to face a lot of problems and this sometimes lead in to sudden moodiness or depression. It is very important to be able to differentiate between moodiness and depression, in order to save the individual from facing any further problems.

Depression during pregnancy
Getting depressed at some point in your pregnancy is common and to be expected. About 10% of all pregnant women will go through depression during pregnancy, which happens as a result of hormonal imbalances caused by your pregnancy.

Depression during pregnancy is usually only temporary, especially if the mother has no previous history of depression. To combat this temporary phase pf depression, expectant mothers need to sleep well, drink enough water, exercise, and believe ‘you’ll get through it’ safely.

Depression diet
When you are in a state of depression it is good to eat a high carbohydrate diet rich in wheat, and brown rice, and plenty of protein. If you are losing weight because of your depression, fruits, vegetables, and high-fiber foods will help you put some of the weight back on.

Eat smaller meals per day, five or six small ones instead of two or three big ones. Watch your insulin levels and try to stay to away from anything that will cause your sugar to rise. By watching your diet and following your doctor’s orders, you can help manage your depression and speed up your recovery.

Unfortunately, there is no real clinical investigation for depression and it can only be diagnosed by the symptoms. However, once diagnosed in a person, he/she should be treated by either a medical expert, or a counselor, a psychiatrist, a psychologist or a psychotherapist or sometimes it requires expertise of all them.