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First of all, there are changes that could be seen with the naked eye and X-ray vision.
首先有些改變可透過肉眼或X光觀察發現。
These include smaller frontal lobes and hippocampal volumes.
包括額葉和海馬體的容量變小。
On a more microscale, depression is associated with a few things:
從更細微的來說，抑郁癥和有些事物有所關連：
the abnormal transmission or depletion of certain neurotransmitters,
某些神經傳導物質不正常地傳遞或耗損，
especially serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, blunted circadian rhythms,
特別是血清素、去甲腎上腺素，以及多巴胺使得生理節奏失調，
or specific changes in the REM and slow-wave parts of your sleep cycle, and hormone abnormalities,
或睡眠周期中的快速動眼期及慢波睡眠的特定改變，以及荷爾蒙異常，
such as high cortisol and deregulation of thyroid hormones.
例如皮質醇過高和甲狀腺荷爾蒙失常。
But neuroscientists still don't have a complete picture of what causes depression.
但神經學家還尚未全面了解掌握造成抑郁癥的原因。
It seems to have to do with a complex interaction between genes and environment,
似乎與基因和環境間復雜的交互作用有關，
but we don't have a diagnostic tool that can accurately predict where or when it will show up.
但目前沒有診斷的工具可以精確地預測在何地或何時會發病。
And because depression symptoms are intangible, it's hard to know who might look fine but is actually struggling.
也因為抑郁癥的癥狀是變化莫測的，我們很難知道看起來好端端的人其實正處于掙扎中。
According to the National Institute of Mental Health,
根據美國國家心理健康研究院所說，
it takes the average person suffering with a mental illness over ten years to ask for help.
通常罹患心理疾病的病患都拖了超過10年才尋求協助。
But there are very effective treatments.
但現在有非常有效的治療方法。
Medications and therapy complement each other to boost brain chemicals.
藥物和治療相輔相成來強化大腦化學物質。
In extreme cases, electroconvulsive therapy,
在一些極端的個案，“電痙攣療法”
which is like a controlled seizure in the patient's brain, is also very helpful.
它是一種在患者腦部以可控制的電擊來誘發痙攣的療法，也非常有幫助。
Other promising treatments, like transcranial magnetic stimulation, are being investigated, too.
其他有前景的療法像是“經顱磁刺激法”也都在研究中。
