If you bring these symptoms to his or her attention, your doctor can change your prescription to a medication that will not have these side effects. Not all of these events are negative, such as change of residence, or marriage. Even these events can produce a lot of stress that can contribute to depression. One thing that helps people cope with stressful events is to have other people to whom they can turn for comfort, advice, help, and support. In one study, researchers in England examined women who had experienced at least one severe stressful event in the past year.
Social support seems to be a particularly important factor after a stressful incident.
Scientists have discovered that depressed people tend to have smaller and less supportive networks of friends and family. One approach has focused on the role that negative events in childhood have on a person's social relationships as an adult. This research finds that depressed people often report having a childhood marked by the death of a parent, or, more commonly, by parental abuse, neglect, family conflict, or some combination of these factors. Such early negative events may set people up to have problems relating to other people in adulthood, which may lead to episodes of depression. Another approach has been to observe people to determine whether, as they begin to become depressed, they act in ways that lead to problems with other people and loss of social support.