Stress and Depression

Professor Wayne Drevets discusses the relationship of stress and depression (http://www.g2conline.org/2076). He explains that a mutation in the Serotonin Transporter can contribute to depression, but only in situations that there was stress early in life. I found it particularly interesting that the same mutation in the Serotonin Transporter would not cause depression in an individual who did not experience early life stressors. This information would indicate that the mutation was not the cause in itself, but certainly a catalyst. It seems to me that if the outside influence of stress was the main cause of depression, that psychotherapy would be a more effective approach (than medication) to helping these individuals. Medication in addition to psychotherapy certainly seems to be the most effective method of treatment, and I believe most of the videos on contained information and statistics to support that. However, I think that perhaps the importance of psychotherapy is generally underplayed in society. It seems as if depression medications are everywhere you turn now a days- many ads on television and in magazines for many different medications. Exposed to this, the general consensus may well be that medication alone is supposed to take care of the issue. Perhaps the medication is simply masking some of the effects caused by the underlying issue, and main cause: the effects of stress.
Professor Drevets states that there is currently no way to tell who will be more likely to recover from the depressive episodes, and those who will suffer from more frequent and severe episodes. However, I believe that the significance of this perspective is that those who have suffered an episode of depression and life stressors need to be proactive in prevention and treatment of future episodes. I am also interested in how many of those who suffer from more frequent and severe episodes dealt with the initial onset, and whether or not therapy (alone, or in conjunction with