IN my last article, I wrote about the symptoms of depression. This week, let's explore the history of depression as it is sometimes useful to know the story behind an illness.

Depression, sometimes known as melancholia, is a prevalent illness that can affect anyone.

It is currently defined as a mental condition characterised by great depression of spirits and gloomy foreboding.

Is depression an affliction of our modern fast-paced world or has it been around since time immemorial?

Depression has been well documented in history. We know this from literature and historical text.

In other words, depression has been around for a long time. King Saul in the Bible is depicted as a man who was depressed and Greek mythology is full of depressed deities and mortals.

Shakespeare, I assume, is of melancholic nature, for him to be able to fathom so insightfully complex human nature.

His plays are rich with characters suffering various forms of mental health issues such as somnambulism, insomnia, hallucinations and delusions.

Some 2,497 years ago, a Greek by the name of Empedocles, theorised that certain human behaviours and temperaments are determined by body fluids, also called the "humors", hence the "humoral theory".

The four humors are blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.

Personality types were presumed to be determined by the presence of a dominant humor. Melancholy derived its origin from this ancient Greek observation.

Hippocrates, who lived at the time of the Hellenic enlightenment, expanded on it by applying it to mental illness. The Greek word "melas" means "black" and "khole" means bile.

Therefore, melancholy is literally translated as "black bile". Melancholia was a disease believed to be caused by an imbalance in one or more of the humors, which in this case is the black bile.

A person who is a ponderer has a melancholic disposition. They are often described as kind, considerate and creative.

Most artists and poets are melancholics, apparently. However, because of their melancholic predisposition, they tend to obsess on life's tragic aspects, thus becoming depressed.

A melancholic is also often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it.

This often results in them being dissatisfied with their creative works, always plagued by the need to improve their works.

The person with blood as his predominant humor is believed to have a sanguine personality, one who is generally cheerful and optimistic. A person with a choleric personality is hypothesised to be influenced by yellow bile. Such a person is ambitious and has leadership capabilities.

Finally, a phlegmatic person is said to be calm and not easily disturbed. Today, more comprehensive studies of the various personalities have been made.

Plato (427-347 BC) later introduced a mystical element. He believed in two types of madness - the first was divinely inspired and gave the recipient prophetic powers, and the second was caused by disease.

He proposed that there are two souls - the rational and irrational.

Cicero (106-43 BC), who was a philosopher and not a healer, later rejected Hippocrates's bile theory, stating that emotional and extraneous factors could cause physical illness.

Arateus (AD 30-90) was the first to suggest that the origin of mental disorder might not be specifically localised. It could originate from the head or abdomen, and could be affected as a secondary consequence.

He also studied pre-morbid personalities and discovered that individuals who developed melancholia tended to depressed in their pre-morbid states.

Emotional disorders were merely an extension or exaggeration of existing character traits, a very original idea at the time.

There were many more eminent healers, physicians and philosophers who contributed to the current understanding of depression.

Fast forwarding to the 19th Century, mental illness, including depression, was proposed to be caused by a biological defect rather than a psychological one.

In the 1950s and 60s, the understanding of the origin of depression became clearer. Like most medical discoveries, this theory was based on a serendipitous observation.

As you can see, the story of depression developed over eons, and like all good stories, it will continue to evolve over time. As more research is being poured into the study and treatment of depression, the more enlightened we will be on battling this debilitating disease.