Depression: from psychopathology to pathophysiology

Major depression is a psychiatric disorder with high prevalence. Both specialists in cognitive psychopathology and neurobiologists have proposed explanations of the process/systems that exhibit altered functioning during this disorder. Psychological processes that are dysfunctional in depressed patients include alterations in self-referential schemas, cognitive biases, ruminations and processing mode (overgeneral versus concrete). These cognitive processes are associated with altered function of specific brain systems, including prefrontal areas and cingulate cortex (both involved in self-referential processes and rumination), amygdala (cognitive bias), lateral habenula (cognitive bias) and hippocampus (cognitive bias and overgeneral processing). This review aims to present a coherent view integrating these two approaches in a unique model.