There certainly does seem to be a difference between depression vs bipolar&#x2F;schizophrenia. Major depression is a lot more prevalent than the others, and stress seems to be a much greater part of the etiology. Having seen various family members with clinical depression and schizophrenia, life events were always associated with the depression, but not for the schizophrenia.<p>My own view is that depression is an evolved response to negative stresses and situations, and that clinical depression is the far end of this scale. Depression is therefore your brain&#x27;s way of telling you that you need get out of a bad situation. Schizophrenia seems to be akin to a flaw resulting from some evolutionary aspect of the brain&#x27;s operation, perhaps due to creativity&#x2F;intelligence.