In the works devoted to the study of electrophysiological correlates of depression, it was shown that in patients with “melancholy depression” electrophysiological signs of increased tone of the parasympathetic system are observed. When the parasympathetic

In the middle of the XX century J. Shildkraut (1961) was formulated so-called. catecholamine theory of the origin of depression. This theory suggested that dysregulation of the noradrenaline-sensitive brain system was one of the important

During depression, the rhythmic excretion of sex hormones is disturbed, the menstrual cycle changes, and blood pressure and body temperature fluctuate (Linkowski P., van Cauter E., Kerkhofs M., 1994). A sharp decrease in the level

When depression also reveals a violation of the secretion of growth hormone secreted by the pituitary gland during human sleep, hence we can assume some of the mechanisms of sleep disorders in depression. Violation of

According to P. Whybroy (1985), depression can be defined as the feedback of three sets of variables at the level of biochemistry, life experience and behavior, and the anatomical substrate or field of interaction of

The experience of depression should be characterized as a phenomenon of the man-environment system, that is, taking into account the influence of the social factor (Coyne J., 1976; McCullough J., 1984, 1996). Urbanization, acute and

In modern psychiatry, it is considered that the development of depression, like most other mental disorders, requires the combined effect of three factors: biological, psychological and social (O. Ergmann et al., 1984; Bragina NN, Dobrokhotova

German neurologist and psychiatrist V. Griesinger, who made a great contribution to the pathological anatomy of mental disorders, believed that melancholia, like any other mental disorder, can be considered from the point of view of

An interesting book by the French psychiatrist of the eighteenth century, Lorry, “On Melancholy and Melancholic Diseases” (Lorry, 1765). He believed that in addition to black bile, the maximum spasm of elastic fibers, nerves, plays

The history of depression is inseparable from the history of mankind, its philosophy, medicine and culture. It is of interest to study the evolution of the views of psychiatrists on depression and those conditions close