The earliest written accounts of what we now know as depression appeared in the second millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia. In these writings, depression was discussed as being a spiritual rather than physical condition, with it, as well as other mental illnesses, thought of as being caused by demonic possession. It was dealt with by priests rather than physicians. The idea of depression as being caused by demons and evil spirits has existed in many cultures, including India, and was often treated with such methods as beatings, physical restraint, and starvation in an attempt to drive the demons out.

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Hippocrates, a Greek physician, suggested that personality traits and mental illnesses were related to balanced or imbalanced body fluids called humours. The influence of Hippocrates faded, and the predominant view among educated Romans was that mental illnesses like depression were caused by demons and by the anger of the gods. During the Renaissance, which began in Italy in the 14th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, thinking about mental illness was characterized by both forward progress and regression. During the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment (the 18th and early 19th centuries), it was thought that depression was an inherited, unchangeable weakness of temperament, which lead to the common thought that affected people should be shunned or locked up.

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In the 1980’s when antidepressants were approved by the FDA, they quickly became one of the most commonly prescribed drugs. In India, prescriptions are not given out as often as they are in America, because depression is not treated like the serious mental condition that it is.