Risk Factors for Adult Depression

Mood disorders, such as depression, can be disruptive to daily functioning and well-being (Malinowski et al., 2017). Depressive disorders are one of the most prominent health problems worldwide (Whiteford et al., 2013). According to predictions, by 2030 depression will be the leading cause of disability, with a prevalence rate of 7.5% (WHO, 2017). In Chile, it is estimated that 15.8% of inhabitants present depressive symptoms, while 6.2% can be diagnosed with a depressive disorder according to the criteria of the DSM-IV (Ministerio de Salud Chile (MINSAL), 2016). Among those, some do not recover or develop a chronic mental disease (van Randenborgh et al., 2012). At the same time, what is usually described as “depression” is a heterogeneous construct (Fried and Nesse, 2015), which does not only point toward different symptom profiles, but also to a thorough assessment of the impact of risk factors and vulnerabilities. This is of practical relevance, as different pathways to the development and course of depression may also interact with the selection of treatments that suits the patient best (De la Parra et al., 2017), and identify strategies for relapse prevention (Ingram and Price, 2010).

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