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Reply using 2 or more of the following ways: Ask a probing question. Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting. Offer and support an opinion. Validate an idea with your own experience. Make a suggestion. Expand on your colleague’s posting. The book goes into excruciating detail about the link between to stress and depression. So much so that there is no real way I would be able to summarize it here. In general, my understanding of the link between stress and depression is that there are several factors involved. First, early life stress (ELS) has been show to lead to depression. This has been shown to be related to disruptions within the CRFergic neurotransmission (Gutman & Nemeroff, 2011). This disruption in CRFergic neurotransmission has been shown to be related to “adverse childhood experiences” (Gutman & Nemeroff, 2011, p. 353). In general it appears that kids who experience severe stress during childhood (i.e. child abuse) are more susceptible to depression later one (Gutman & Nemeroff, 2011). Something else I found in my own research shows that stress and depression are related in other ways besides adverse childhood experiences. For adults, if they are under constant amounts of chronic stress this can lead to depression. This is exacerbated when the adult has poor coping skills (Moylan, Berk, Dean, Samuni, Williams, O’Neal, … & Maes, 2014). Poor coping skills in general can lead to more stress, that can then lead to depression. Another part of the reason that stress leads to depression is because stress can cause the release of the stress hormone cortisol and the decrease in neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin. This in turn helps to lead a person from stress to depression (Moylan, Berk, Dean, Samuni, Williams, O’Neal, … & Maes, 2014). As far as two factors of the stress response that influence the development of depression, I just touched on that above. Stress causes the release of the stress hormone cortisol. In general research shows that elevated levels of cortisol will often times lead to depression (Moylan, Berk, Dean, Samuni, Williams, O’Neal, … & Maes, 2014). As far as serotonin and dopamine are concerned severe stress has been shown through research to reduce the production of new cells and the production of dopamine and serotonin. When dopamine and serotonin production is low this has been shown to lead to depression (Moylan, Berk, Dean, Samuni, Williams, O’Neal, … & Maes, 2014). From my understanding this is how depression effects the immune/inflammation response. When a person is depressed this can trigger the immune system to trigger the inflammation response (Laureate Education, 2012). If the inflammation response is triggered enough in a person because of depression or stress this can lead to chronic diseases (Laureate Education, 2012). Basically what I am understanding is constant depression leads to an immune/inflammation response, and if done enough leads to the body breaking down and disease. References Gutman, D. A., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2011). Stress and depression. In R. J. Contrada & A. Baum (Eds.), The handbook of stress science: Biology, psychology, and health (pp. 345–357). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. Laureate Education, Inc. (2012). Stress, the immune system, chronic illness, and your body. Unpublished document. Moylan, S., Berk, M., Dean, O. M., Samuni, Y., Williams, L. J., O’Neil, A., … & Maes, M. (2014). Oxidative & nitrosative stress in depression: why so much stress?. Neuroscienagnce & Biobehavioral Reviews, 45, 46-62.