Biological Vulnerability of Depression, by Nantel-Vivier and Pihl

In short, as a 2008 review of biological vulnerability factors in early-onset depression put it, the quest for the “neurobiological roots” of the condition is obscured by the fact that, when assessing differences in brain function or activity between patients and controls, “it is unclear whether we are measuring causal factors making an etiological contribution to the illness, or, conversely, consequences or associated factors of the illness” (Nantel-Vivier and Pihl 2008, 105).

From a developmental viewpoint, “identifying depression subtypes based on age of onset and neurobiological characteristics may provide us with more etiologically consistent and uniform diagnostic categories” (Nantel-Vivier and Pihl 2008, 111).

Vidal, Fernando and Ortega, Francisco. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject (Forms of Living)....

The Handbook of Depression in Children and Adolescents at Google Books

Robert O. Pihl at McGill University

Amélie Nantel-Vivier at GRIP