Skip to content

0:00 / 0:00

Stanford's Sapolsky On Depression in U.S. (Full Lecture)

2.2M subscribers • 7 videos on Rounds

Recommended by 14 people, in Hacker News, across 12 different months.
Presented by Robert Sapolsky, Professor at Stanford, as the video describes them

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

6.4M views16 years ago14 recommendations

Mental health Brain and nerves Depression and anxiety Neuroscience

Robert Sapolsky explains the biological and psychological mechanisms of major depression, comparing it to physical diseases like diabetes.

This lecture has been updated: youtu.be/fzUXcBTQXKM Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky, posits that depression is the most damaging disease that you can experience. Right now it is the number four cause of disability in the US and it is becoming more common. Sapolsky states that depression is as real of a biological disease as is diabetes. Stanford University: stanford.edu/ Stanford University Channel on YouTube: youtube.com/stanford

Why it's here

14 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as the quintessential lecture for understanding the biological underpinnings and psychological aspects of clinical depression.

blhackin Hacker News • 13 years agoRecommends

On “Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago”

…es. To a casual, uninformed observer, depression is a choice of behavior. It isn't. You don't get depression from weakness in the same way that you don't get cancer from weakness. Depression also kills more people per year than cancer does. Cancer about 20,000 -- depression about 30,000. (Highly relevant lecture by a very brilliant neuroscientist: link to this video ) -- That said, Ed Weissman made an inappropriate comment. Every single person here, including me, has made inappropriate comments in the past. Let's not start the pitchforks and torches just yet, guys. He who is without sin, and all that.…

View on Hacker News

fjarlqin Hacker News • 13 years agoRecommends

On “We Need to Have Sympathy for Those With Depression. It is an Illness”

Professor Sapolsky at Stanford gave an interesting lecture about depression a few years ago... highly recommended: link to this video

View on Hacker News

AlexandrBin Hacker News • 13 years agoRecommends

On “We Need to Have Sympathy for Those With Depression. It is an Illness”

This was posted in a HN comment not too long ago. It's a very good lecture that goes into both the biological and psychological aspects of depression and then manages to tie them together. link to this video > We say that there is something wrong with their brains, rather than saying that there is something wrong with society. The real answer is probably a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

View on Hacker News

heuristin Hacker News • 13 years agoRecommends

On “Two Root Causes Of My Recent Depression”

I agree that depression can be caused by many things. This might be more of a case of chronic depression vs. temporary depression, although I don't presume to know which one the author was/is dealing with. People bounce back from temporary depression, but chronic depression is a problem for life. Here's a great lecture that discusses the differences (I'm pretty sure it was this one... if not, it's still a great lecture): link to this video

View on Hacker News

maxlambin Hacker News • 9 years agoRecommends

On “The Depression Thing”

while on the subject, highly recommend this video on depression from Stanford's Sapolsky to understanding the underlying biological aspect of it: link to this video

View on Hacker News

mikec3010in Hacker News • 8 years agoRecommends

On “What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed”

This is the quintessential video for understanding clinical depression. A Stanford lecture given by Dr Sapolsky: link to this video I highly recommend watching it to better understand the disease.

View on Hacker News

kekeboin Hacker News • 7 years agoRecommends

On “Exercise as a treatment for depression: a meta-analysis (2016)”

Depression correlates with hormonal changes, but saying it's a result of it is reductionistic and inaccurate. Depression also highly correlates with changes in inflammatory markers called cytokines1, but reducing it to a single biological factor never yields an accurate pathogenesis of the disease. Robert Sapolskys Stanford Lecture gives a good overview of the interaction an relationship of the main risk factors causing depression2. 1 link 2 link to this video Robert Sapolsky On Depression

View on Hacker News

ronyfadelin Hacker News • 6 years agoRecommends

On “Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA”

Sapolsky on depression: link to this video “Depression is agression turned inwards”. He explains what our current understanding of depression is. I think you’ll have a whole new understanding of depression after watching this.

View on Hacker News

g3e0in Hacker News • 6 years agoRecommends

On “Surviving Depression”

…y side effects I experienced were 3 days of extreme tiredness when I first started taking them, which then subsided. And my appetite increased, so I have gained a few pounds, but since I was already quite skinny and had started lifting weights, this has been a net plus. I found this lecture by Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky highly insightful - link to this video - We all get depressed, it's a normal part of life, but depression is a disease which causes you to stay depressed for no reason,…

View on Hacker News

elricin Hacker News • 6 years agoRecommends

On “I built an app to fix my depression”

Stanford's Sapolsky does a pretty good job explaining what is and isn't. I recommend the full lecture, it's interesting stuff: link to this video

View on Hacker News

shadowfaxRodeoin Hacker News • 5 years agoRecommends

On “Some Days I Can’t Do Life – When everyday life becomes a struggle (2020)”

…rson I want to be. I work, learn, socialize, live in a (relatively) clean apartment, which I leave to go outside. It took me way too long accept that depression is not all my fault, that it's a disease, and that I needed to see a real doctor. For those who suffer, or know those who suffer (that's probably everyone) I really recommend this lecture: link to this video It's super interesting, it ties all the causes of depression together — childhood trauma, everyday experience, down to the neuron, and chemical reactions. It really helps externalize it.…

View on Hacker News

jesin Hacker News • 4 years agoRecommends

On “Experimental depression treatment is nearly 80% effective in controlled study”

Years ago I found the video by Dr. Robert Sapolsky1 to be a good introduction to the topic of depression. I also suffered a major depression of my own about six years ago. It was a horrible time in my life. 1 link to this video

View on Hacker News

RGammain Hacker News • 1 year agoRecommends

On “The Opportunity Theory of Depression”

And for something less disappointing see this Robert Sapolsky lecture link to this video Also his lecture series on Human Behavioral Biology.

View on Hacker News

tycho-newmanin Hacker News • 3 months agoRecommends

On “Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important”

Robert Sapolsky has a fantastic discussion of depression as a form of learned helplessness. We see it in abused animals: link to this video You are not much different from any other animal at some level. With enough conditioning you will believe that you have no agency over your own life, and you’ll just sit there and take the shocks hoping it ends soon. Or worse, you’ll lose perspective and imagine the only solution to your current (likely temporary) circumstance is to (definitely very permanently) end your own life.

View on Hacker News

Mattiin Hacker News • 16 years agoMentions

On “Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos”

link to this video "Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky, posits that depression is the most damaging disease that you can experience. Right now it is the number four cause of disability in the US and it is becoming more common. Sapolsky states that depression is as real of a biological disease as is diabetes."

View on Hacker News

mechanical_fishin Hacker News • 12 years agoMentions

On “The Happiest Regions in the U.S.”

Depression is an illness. If the guy had died of cancer, would you be reading so much into his decision to "let himself go"? (I confess I find this turn of phrase so repugnant that I can barely bring myself to type it, even inside scare quotes. Its implication is that a person with a proper philosophy, or one whose belief was sufficiently sincere, wouldn't have slacked off to the point that they suffered from a debilitating, painful, often fatal condition that is apparently the number-four cause of disability in the USA: link to this video )

View on Hacker News