Major depression is an episodic disorder which, for many individuals, has its onset in a distinct change of emotional state which then persists over time. The present article explores the utility of combining a dynamical systems approach to depression, focusing specifically on the change of state associated with episode onset, with a self-regulation perspective, which operationalizes how feedback received in the ongoing process of goal pursuit influences affect, motivation, and behavior, for understanding how a depressive episode begins. The goals of this review are to survey the recent literature modeling the onset of a depressive episode and to illustrate how a self-regulation perspective can provide a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses regarding episode onset within a dynamical systems model of depression.

重度抑郁症是一种偶发性疾病，对于许多人来说，它的发病是情绪状态的明显变化，然后随着时间的推移持续存在。本文探讨了将动态系统方法与抑郁症相结合的效用，特别关注与发作相关的状态变化，以及自我调节的视角，该视角可操作化在持续的目标追求过程中收到的反馈如何影响情感、动机和行为，以了解抑郁发作是如何开始的。本综述的目的是调查最近对抑郁发作的发病建模的文献，并说明自我调节视角如何提供一个概念框架和关于抑郁症动态系统模型中的发作发病的可检验假设。