Challenges and strategies in depression research

Abstract

Depression constitutes the most common mental disorder with high prevalence rate， and is the leading contributor to the global burden of disease. Many factors are found to influence the development of depression， whereas either reliable biomarkers for the early diagnosis or diagnostic criteria for subtype classification currently exist for depression. Therefore， this paper gives a detailed discussion on the current status and existing challenges of depression research in the context of brain imaging， psychoneuroimmunology and electroencephalography， thus providing a new perspective for research directions and future strategies related to depression.

Keywords

• depression
• clinical symptom
• subtype
• biomarker
• scientific problem
• research strategy