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I am inclined to support the claim that depression is simply a disease that we do not yet fully grasp the underlying physical correlates of.  It is exceedingly difficult to study mental illness due to many practical and ethical limitations.  For example, researchers cannot induce depression in human subjects for obvious ethical reasons, but using a mouse model for mental illness is inherently flawed as well (even if a researcher finds differing serotonin levels in the brain, who’s to say the mouse was really depressed in the first place?).  If we find a way to study mental illness in a more controlled environment, I believe that the underlying mechanisms will become analogous to any other physical disorder.
 
            There was also a lot of discussion about the “events” that cause depression as opposed to the events that lead to other physical maladies.  However, I would argue that this process is really isn’t that different for physical and mental illness.  Cancer and depression are both mainly caused by as series of environmental factors as well as genetics.  Cancer’s environmental factors include carcinogens (such as UV, cigarettes, etc.), while depression may be induced by traumatic life events.  It really just depends on how far you want to stretch the term “environmental factor”.  Even genetic translocations common in cancer are induced by the cellular environment (enzymes present, etc.).  If our neurons are affected by our experiences in the world, then how are difficult life events really that different than environmental factors that impact our cells, leading to cancer?
                       
            I took an education psychology course last semester, and we discussed the possibility that our society creates people with culturally induced ADHD (as opposed to genetically induced).  For example, we do not impose stringent limitations, and the Internet provides people with instant gratification, possibly reducing the need to focus on tasks for long periods of time.  If ADHD has become integrated into our culture, then is it really fair to call it a disease?  Or perhaps it is still a disease, and we have simply produced a society that provides the “perfect” environmental stimuli to induce this illness?
           
            However, I have to ask, why does it really matter if we call depression (or ADHD) an illness or not?  We all know that it exists, it is an undesirable state, and people are going to be treated for it (with drugs, therapy, etc.) regardless of what we call it.