Major Depression

Depressive disorders affect about 4-8% of the general population, causing the loss of the ability to work, to have close relationships, and to have a fulfilling life. Characteristic is a distinct loss of energy and activity, often along with somatic conditions like hypertension, circulatory problems, and sleep disturbances. Available treatments, though effective, have only modest response rates and the question of predicting treatment response in the individual patient is not answerable for any of the currently available therapeutic approaches.

Etiology of Depression

Evidence from twin, family and adoption studies suggests that there is a genetic predisposition to major depression which varies across patients and may "explain" some 25% of causality. Genetic predisposition acts nonspecifically, by elevating a subject's "vulnerability" (or "sensitivity") to environmental or endogenous challenges. Vulnerability is neither necessary nor sufficient for the development of major depression.

Low Mood and Voice

Low mood significantly reduces the dynamic expressiveness of human voices, thus greatly reducing the between-subject differences regarding speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics. Consequently, the voices of people in the state of low mood become very similar to each other ("depressive voices"). During recovery, however, speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics return to "normal" values.

Mechanisms that Maintain Health

A subject's vulnerability is complemented by resilience factors. The term "resilience" denotes all those endogenous mechanisms that support and maintain health. Strengthening resilience combined with an early detection of impending mental health problems are a much better strategy than waiting until clinical symptoms develop.

Current treatment standards in psychiatry are oriented towards polypharmacy, that is, patients receive combinations of several antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiolytics, hypnotics, antihistamines, and anticholinergics, along with other somatic treatments. In tandem with the beneficial effects of psychopharmacological drug treatment, patients experience significant adverse reactions which appear to have become more frequent and more severe with the rise of ubiquitous polypharmacy.

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