Many depressed patients and their families believe that depression is either a disease, or that the patient is not strong-willed, or a lazy disease! Therefore, the very great suffering of depressed patients is also related to the inability to be understood by others, even by themselves. An international team of researchers led by the University of Granada (UGR) in Spain has systematically demonstrated for the first time that depression is not just a mental illness – rather, it causes significant changes in oxidative stress and therefore it should be considered a systemic disease because it affects the whole organism. A study that included 29 studies involving 3,961 people, including 2,477 depressed patients and 1,484 healthy controls. This is the first time researchers have studied somatic changes in depressed patients in detail. The study explored the dysregulation between increased individual oxidative stress parameters (specifically malondialdehyde [MDA], a biomarker measuring oxidative damage to cell membranes) and decreased antioxidant substances (e.g., uric acid, zinc, superoxide dismutase) The study showed that compared to healthy controls, depressed patients had significantly higher levels of MDA, lower levels of the antioxidants uric acid and zinc, and increased levels of the antioxidant-enhancing enzyme (SOD) was elevated. After regular antidepressant treatment, patients’ MDA levels decreased to the same level as healthy subjects, while zinc and uric acid levels increased to normal levels, without any change in superoxide dismutase. It is important to note that the effects of all of these changes were not limited to the brain, but involved the whole body. Although this does not mean that depression is not treated well, it does call for a scientific attitude of all people to look at depression and understand it, especially the suffering of the patients.