Abstract for: Cutting the Loops of Depression: a System Dynamics Representation of the Feedback Mechanisms Involved in Depression Development

The World Health Organization indicates that depression will pass from being the third cause of disease burden to be the leading one in 2030. Treatment personalization of depression could significantly reduce the time that people remain in a depression and decrease the costs of treatment of depression. This paper contributes to depression personalized treatment by presenting a formal SD model of the dynamic system of psychological, biological and social mechanisms that cause depression. This formal SD model may serve as a learning tool to estimate the unintended consequences of treatments. Second, it may serve as a communication tool for specialist (psychiatrists and psychologists) to explain their patients about this condition.