A new study has found that people become more easily depressed following minor life stresses, partly because they have experienced early life adversities or prior depressive episodes. According to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), both these situations may make people more sensitive to later life stresses. Although, most people are pulled down by significant adversities like the death of a loved one or getting fired, roughly 30 percent with first-time depression and 60pc of people with a history of depression develop the disorder following relatively minor misfortunes. “We have known for a long time that some people are more likely to experience mental and physical health problems than others,” said George Slavich, an assistant professor at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology. “For example, while some people get depressed following a relationship breakup, others do not. In this study, we aimed to identify factors that are associated with this phenomenon and to examine whether increased sensitivity to stress might be playing a role,” he added.
