What is Depression? Science Lesson for Years 7-11 - Key Stages 3 & 4
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What is Depression? Science Lesson for Years 7-11 Key Stages 3 & 4
Science lesson ACTIVITY 1:
Understanding depression
Outline ..
Key Objective 1:
To understand what depression is and the symptoms of depression
For Mental Health Awareness Week this year, MindFull is on a mission to put mental health on the
national curriculum. We are encouraging young people and professionals to take action and host
a series of mental health lessons during Mental Health Awareness Week, as well as signing our petition Timing:
calling for mental health to be embedded into the National Curriculum: mindfull.org/petition/ 15mins
Our series of school lessons and activities have been created to explore mental health in a way which
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fits with the current National Curriculum.
Resources Needed:
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Laptop with projector screen and speakers
Access to YouTube
Summary 30 x copies of body outline sheet
This lesson plan is part of our Mental Health Awareness Week mission. Mental Health Awareness
Week is 12th-18th May, 2014. The lesson plan asks the young people to identify what depression is, Begin the class by showing the clip ‘I had a black dog, his name was depression’
consider the basic genetic explanations of depression and be able to identify where to get help for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc
themselves or others suffering with depressive symptoms.
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Encourage some discussion around the video clip by asking the class:
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National Curriculum Links: What did you think of the video?
How did his depression make the narrator feel?
This lesson plan fits into Key Stages 3 & 4 Science Biology components and also fits into the PSHE How was his life affected by depression?
curriculum. How common do you think depression is?
Objectives
1. To understand what depression is and the symptoms of depression.
2. To understand the genetic explanation for depression.
3. To know where to get help for depression.
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Keywords
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Depression
Environmental factors
Genetics
Predisposition
2 3Summarise discussion and share the following information with the class:
What is depression?
We all have bad days sometimes where we feel a bit low and upset things and it is perfectly normal to
experience these feelings from time to time. However, when a low mood persists for long periods of
time and starts to interrupt somebody’s everyday functioning, it is referred to as depression.
How common is depression?
Depression is considered to be the ‘common cold’ of mental health disorders as it is the most common
mental health condition. It can be diagnosed at any age (even in young children), across all social
classes and around 50 percent of people will have a depressive episode in their lifetime.
Hand each student a copy of the body outline sheets and ask them to add:
On the head - What kind of thoughts the person might be having if they are experiencing depression.
On the body - How they might be feeling .
Around the edges - How they might be behaving.
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Encourage students to share the symptoms they have written, these may include:
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Feeling hopelessness
Feeling like nothing will ever change
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A change in appetite or weight
Social withdrawal
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Either sleeping too much or sleeping too little
Difficulty concentrating
Feeling irritable or agitated
Lack of energy and pleasure in doing activities they used to enjoy
Please write:
On their head: What kind of thoughts they might be having if they are experiencing depression.
On their body: How they might be feeling
Around the edges: How they might be behaving
4 5ACTIVITY 2: What do we know about twin studies of depression?
Genetics and depression
One Danish study found that when an identical twin has depression there is a 43 percent chance
that the other twin will develop the disorder. If a non-identical twin has the disorder the probability
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is only 20 percent, (Bertelsen et al, 1977).
Key Objective 2:
To understand the genetic explanation for depression HOWEVER, if depression was a genetic disorder we would expect that if one identical twin had
depression the other twin would definitely have it as well, so this shows that depression is not
purely inherited - there must be other factors.
Timing: HANDS UP EXERCISE: Why might there be a problem with family and twin studies? PROMPT:
25mins What do they share as well as genetic material?
The problem with Family and Twins studies is that family members and twins often live together
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Resources Needed: in a shared environment. This means that it could be something in the environment, for example,
their living conditions or family relationships that are causing the depression, rather than genes.
Whiteboard and pens
Students’ exercise books and pens
3. Adoption studies: In order to get around this problem we can use adoption studies; where
somebody with depression was adopted young and moved away from their families early on in life.
We would then compare the rates of depression in
Write the following information on the board and ask students to copy it down. Answer any questions.
a) their adopted parents and
GENETICS: Depression in somebody may arise as the result of a genetic predisposition. b) their biological/birth parents.
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Explain genetic predisposition: A genetic predisposition means that somebody is more likely to develop
a particular illness or condition based on their genetic make up. A genetic predisposition is normally ASK THE CLASS:
the result of inherited genes from your parents or other relatives. Where would we expect to see a higher rate of depression?
What do we know about depression from adoption studies?
HANDS UP EXERCISE: How do we find out if you can be genetically predisposed to depression - what
kind of study might we do? Ask students to contribute ideas. Most show an increased risk in the biological relatives of people with depression rather than
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adopted relatives.
Explain that there are three ways of investigating the role that genes play in depression (or any other
disease). Wender et al. (1986) found that biological relatives were eight times more likely to have depression
than adoptive relatives.
1. Family studies: Identify sufferers with depression and see how many of them have family
members who also suffer from depression. KEY LEARNING POINTS:
Some genetic evidence for depression, but shared genes normally also means shared environment,
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What do we know about family studies of depression? therefore it could be the result of environmental factors and not genes.
Gershon (1990) found that rates of depression in close relatives ranged between seven and 30 Risk seems to be increased for identical twins; however, the risks are never thought to be 100 percent.
percent. This is higher than the rates in unrelated people. Genetics seems to be a risk factor, but not a whole explanation.
2. Twin studies: Study identical twins and non-identical twins. Identical twins have the same genetic
material, so if depression has a genetic cause we would expect that if one twin had depression the
other one would have it as well, whereas we wouldn’t expect this in non-identical twins because
they have different genes to each other.
6 7ACTIVITY 3:
Word search
C S D O C T O R C C
X O K N V C Z D F Z
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Key Objective 2:
To know where to get help for depression
O Z U T E A C H E R
Timing:
A H Z N F O B W R E
10mins
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Resources Needed:
X Y R S S I R D I N
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30 X Mental Health word searches STAPLED TO
30 x MindFull depression fact sheets
Pen/pencils
X L F R I E N D S I
Explain that it’s important to know who you can talk to and where you can go if you are feeling low or
G I H A Q B L M C L
need some support.
Hand out copies of the resources. Ask students to read through the fact sheet on depression and then
move on to work through the word search.
Students can complete the word searches in their own time if they do not finish in the class.
Encourage the class to take the fact sheets with them, explaining that the information may be useful
E M E V E E D L E N
for them or for someone they know.
Z A W D K I C I O O
M F M E N T O R C R
FAMILY
FRIEND
DOCTOR
MENTOR
ONLINE
COUNSELLOR
TEACHER
8 9What professional help is available?
Depression
MindFull Fact Sheet Professional support available for depression is generally a combination of drug treatment
and psychological therapy aimed at dealing with the cause of depression and developing new
thinking patterns. Sometimes treatment for depression may be online. Medication may be
used in some cases, although anti-depressants are always prescribed to young people.
What is depression?
We all have bad days sometimes where we feel a bit low and upset things and it is perfectly
....
normal to experience these feelings from time to time. However, when a low mood persists Self-help techniques:
for long periods of time and starts to interrupt somebody’s everyday functioning, it is referred
....
Exercise is a scientifically proven form of self help for depression
to as depression.
Keep a journal of how you are feeling
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Although it isn’t always easy when you feel depressed, do your best to keep talking to people
Read self-help books
Who is affected by depression? If you feel suicidal, it is important to let a trusted adult know immediately!
Depression is considered to be the ‘common cold’ of mental health disorders as it is the most
common mental health condition. It can be diagnosed at any age (even in young children),
Further support:
across all social classes and around 50 percent of people will have a depressive episode in
their lifetime. Depression Alliance
http://www.depressionalliance.org/
0845 123 23 20
What are the signs of depression? information@depressionalliance.org
Depression is often characterised by low mood, negative thoughts and feelings of low self Look OK... Feel Crap?
worth. Other signs of depression include: feeling hopelessness or feeling like nothing will http://www.lookokfeelcrap.org/
ever change, a change in appetite or weight, social withdrawal, either sleeping too much or info@actionondepression.org
sleeping too little, difficulty concentrating, feeling irritable or agitated, lack of energy and
pleasure in doing activities you used to enjoy. Sane
http://www.sane.org.uk/what_we_do/black_dog
What causes depression? Students Against Depression
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http://studentsagainstdepression.org/
Depression can have a range of different causes:
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A distressing life event Mind
Prolonged exposure to a stressful situation http://goo.gl/XJAvdf
It may be that there is an imbalance of chemicals in the brain which causes depression
Sometimes there is no clear cause!
10 11You can also read
