“Depression, is it born or made?” It is not a question with a single answer, it is multifactorial: there are biological, psychological and social factors that intervene to a greater or lesser extent. But what the experts are clear about is that childhood trauma, especially sexual abuse, clearly increases (four times) the possibility of suffering depression in adulthood. And not just any depression, but serious and chronic.

This was stated by Dr. Alba Babot, a specialist in Family and Community Medicine in the basic health area of ​​La Garriga, in Barcelona, ​​at the XX Lundbeck seminar “Depression, is it born or is it made?” that has been held in Sitges.

According to Babot, a high percentage of adults with depression have a history of childhood trauma, 62.5% compared to 28.4% of healthy people, which is associated with a worse response to antidepressant treatment or remission, especially if they have suffered abuse before the age of 7.

But what is childhood trauma? A traumatic experience is any situation in which a person is exposed to scenes of actual or imminent death, serious physical injury, or sexual assault, whether as a direct victim, close to the victim, or as a witness.

This population group is four times more likely to develop depression than children and adolescents not exposed to trauma, “without forgetting that psychological trauma increases the risk of suicide from 2 to 5 times,” explains Alba Babot.

Child abuse predicts worse outcomes, including earlier-onset depression, increased risk of recurrent depression, more severe course of illness, and greater chronicity, she says. In fact, the more chronic the abuse, the higher the prevalence of lifetime depression.

But it’s not just childhood traumas. Also, unwanted loneliness. A recent study carried out by researchers from the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu concludes that loneliness increases the chances of suffering from depression up to five times, but also that it is a modifiable factor.

According to the Fundación Once’s State Observatory for Unwanted Loneliness, the youngest are the ones who feel the most unwanted loneliness: 38.4% of people between the ages of 16 and 34 live with it. This sentiment decreases in the following age groups, until it stands at around 12%. The age group of 65-74 years is the one that suffers less loneliness. However, in people aged 75 and over it rises again, reaching above 12%.

“Unlike what has been thought and experienced in recent years, currently the young population has a greater feeling of loneliness compared to the older adult population. Social networks and linking to screens, economic factors or not working in contact with others People would be the factors that contribute the most to this feeling of unwanted loneliness.

The possibility of suffering from this disease also increases “psychosocial problems related to social and economic pressure within the workplace, care work and problems within the sphere of the couple,” explains Babot. That is, day-to-day .

In addition, “neurotic, ruminative, distrustful and introverted personalities, with a tendency to mismanage conflicts, present a greater tendency to depression”, explains this specialist. And it is that there are certain personality traits that are associated with a greater predisposition to depression and a worse course and response to treatment

In this sense, Dr. José Manuel Montes, head of the Psychiatry section of the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid, has revealed that “those psychological profiles that are most vulnerable to depression are those who find it most difficult to face stressful situations ”.

Dr. Montes has focused on the biological factors of depression. Which is the most important? “The genetic predisposition, which is not necessarily decisive for its development,” answers this psychiatrist, who also highlights the role played by “hormonal changes, the most frequent being cortisol, which mediates the body’s reactions to stress, or the fluctuations in sex hormones at key periods of a woman’s reproductive life, as well as inflammation, among other biological factors.

Is, therefore, depression a hereditary disease? “No, the predisposition to suffer from the disease is inherited, which together with the interaction with other environmental factors precipitate, in most cases, depression,” Dr. Montes qualifies.