[jaggederest]

I have a pet theory that much of what we call mental health and chronic illness will eventually be traced back as a symptom of some causative factor - most likely infectious or environmental - rather than being a base illness as we think of them now.

Much as we don't think of "fever" as an illness any more, I suspect "depression" will become descriptive rather than predictive - which, to an extent, it already is, at least according to the DSM as I understand.

It's also possible that we'll see it as something that is multifactorial - some genetic susceptibility combined with environmental and/or infectious triggers.

[bitL]

I think they should first stop treating depression as a single illness. There are likely thousands different reasons for brain to end up with similar symptoms. Many forms of nutritional deficiencies likely turn into something that can be symptomatically classified as depression and sometimes be fully reversible by just restocking that missing nutrient or reducing its intake. Yet we clinically classify such conditions the same as ones caused by some brain injury or mentally horrible experiences that rewire brain circuits in weird ways.

[_yb2s]

I agree but I think we will find that emotional trauma is also a big component of the multifactorial causes.