[Thesis for induction into the Venezuelan Society for the History of Medicine: Historical introduction to the study of depression].

A historical essay on the development of the melancholy or depression study, initiated in the greek-roman stage, through Middle Ages, XVIth to XXth centuries, with Freud contribution, biochemical and genetic theories and the new depressive syndrome classification with its modern treatment. The importance of its early diagnosis in order to avoid suicides is highlighted, so the modern studies on the relation between depression and creativeness.