Stress in Depression

That life stress precipitates depression is one of the most replicated findings in psychiatric research,but prior to Brown and Harris’s seminal contributions, insufficiently rigorous methods led tounderestimates of the effects of stress and threatened the field. This chapter provides amethodological and historical overview, followed by a review of evidence that recent stresspredicts depression across the life span. It also examines demographic vulnerability factors andresearch on early adversity and depression, closing with future directions. Two themes manifestthroughout. First, stress assessment that uses investigator-rated severity, accounts for severity,establishes temporal precedence, and isolates the few months prior to depression onset remainscritical to progress. Second, identifying the most potent forms of stress for depression is a keyquestion that will facilitate both preventive/intervention efforts and more powerful tests inmechanistic research. Although evidence points to interpersonal forms of stress, few studiesprovide the necessary direct tests