Stress-diathesis Model of Psychopathology

Stress-diathesis Model of Psychopathology

Theories of the causes of mental disorders are many. For simplicity, we take the position that etiology in psychopathology is multifactorial. Most mental disorders are likely to be caused by both a predisposition or vul-nerability at the level of brain biochemistry and experience with acute life events or chronic stressful life circumstances. Such a model helps to explain why a person with a strong family history of depression, for example, may be asymptomatic for long peri-ods but may experience depression after a loss.