Self-Regulation and Depression

This article describes an emerging perspective on depression as a disorder of self-regulation. It is proposed that the concept of brain/behavior system, though insufficient for explaining depression, can be reformulated as self/brain/behavior system to address both psychological and neurophysiological aspects of depression. A set of hypotheses conceptualizing depression (in self/brain/behavior system terms) as a disorder of self-regulation is offered, and evidence in support of those predictions is summarized. Implications of the self-regulation model are discussed and potential advantages of a self-regulation perspective on depression are suggested.