Is depression an adaptation?

@article{Nesse2000IsDA,
  title={Is depression an adaptation?},
  author={R. Nesse},
  journal={Archives of general psychiatry},
  year={2000},
  volume={57 1},
  pages={
          14-20
        }
}
  • R. Nesse
  • Published 2000
  • Psychology, Medicine
  • Archives of general psychiatry
    • Many functions have been suggested for low mood or depression, including communicating a need for help, signaling yielding in a hierarchy conflict, fostering disengagement from commitments to unreachable goals, and regulating patterns of investment. A more comprehensive evolutionary explanation may emerge from attempts to identify how the characteristics of low mood increase an organism's ability to cope with the adaptive challenges characteristic of unpropitious situations in which effort to… CONTINUE READING
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