Depression

What is depression?

We all experience low mood sometimes - it is a normal part of life especially after a loss or bereavement. Depression in the medical sense however can leave people feeling severely sad, empty, hopeless or guilty for weeks, months or even years. 

It can affect every part of a person’s life. Relationships. Work. Physical health. They all suffer. And, at its most severe, depression can be life-threatening.

Depression can also have physical symptoms, such as fatigue, sleeping badly or much more than usual, poor appetite or overeating, and loss of sex drive.

Everyone experiences depression differently. But however it affects people, it’s definitely not the same as simply feeling low for a few days or something that people can ‘snap out of’.

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Uncovering the priorities for depression research

There’s so much we don’t know about what causes depression, how we can prevent it and which treatments work best. Research is essential to answering these questions.

To focus our work, we asked 3,000 people with depression what research answers would make the biggest difference to their lives. Their answers highlighted preventing the occurrence and recurrence of depression as the highest priority.

Our research into depression