This free course, Understanding depression and anxiety, explores the causes of these mental health issues, with a particular focus on stress. You will consider some risk and causal factors for some depression and anxiety disorders, and learn about the biology and psychology behind them.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• describe how stressful life events may be linked to emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety
• describe the main features of the physiological stress response
• evaluate the role of genetic and environmental factors in emotional disorders
• describe the different kinds of biological abnormalities that have been linked to emotional disorders.