The role of stressful live events in the pathogenesis of depression

It is well established that the role of psychosocial factors is one of the most crucial compounds in the complex etiopathogenesis of depression. The aim of this article is to review data concerning the influence of stress and environmental and genetic factors on the appearance of depressive symptoms. This article describes the role of both: stressful life events end early stressful life events such as sexual abuse, physical and psychological abuse, or education neglect in childhood. Later in the paper, the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is described on account of its close relationship with mechanisms of stress. Emerging evidence suggests that changes in the PPN axis constitute a mechanism mediating between stressful life events and increased vulnerability to stress and biological changes observed in depression. The authors also underline that psychosocial factors seem to predispose to illness only in combination with the inherited genetic predisposition to depression; therefore the authors of this article paid special attention to the role of genetic factors in response to early childhood stress and life factors appearing in adult life. The described review confirms the essential role of interaction of polymorphisms of 5-HTT, COMT, MAOA, CRHR1 genes and environmental factors in development of depressive symptoms, and this indicates the need for further studies taking into consideration interactions of these genes with stressing factors.