On: Depression gene 'discovered'

[defen]

My favorite just-so story about the roots of depression is that it emerged during the last glacial period as a response to extreme cold weather. It's a behavioral adaptation that would have made it easier for humans to remain indoors for long periods of time without going crazy/killing each other.

[sachmanb → defen]

other species get depressed too, though. got a link about this? i tried searching around but didn't find anything useful.

[defen → sachmanb]

I couldn't find a good pithy blog post explaining it, so instead I'll direct you to a couple things I did find. I first read about it here (search for 'cave'): http://www.arthurdevany.com/2005/06/weepy_relatives.html

Which led me to Randolph Nesse: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nesse/ who wrote this book: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Sick-Darwinian/dp/067974674...