Depression and anxiety are the most common psychological problems in our society. Almost 30 percent of Americans will struggle with an anxiety disorder at some point during their lives and around 17 percent will struggle with clinical depression.

Kari Eddington, Assistant professor in the psychology department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, said most of these people will be women.

"Depression and anxiety often go together and the costs associated with these disorders can be staggering. We typically think of the healthcare costs, but if we also think about the loss time at work and productivity, social impairment and the ultimate cost suicide, it really is a major problem," said Eddington.

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is hosting a two day lecture series beginning this Thursday, March 22 and Friday March 23 to take a closer look at these disorders.

The goal of this year’s Kendon Smith Lecture series is to bring together some of the nation’s leading experts on anxiety and depression to talk about the latest research and technology.

Eddington said participants will also gain insight on why some people seem to be more vulnerable for developing these disorders.

"With tools that we have now like brain imaging and gene mapping, we can look at how biological factors interact with life experiences to increase or even decrease that vulnerability, so the speakers will be talking a lot about what causes anxiety and depression and they will also be discussing what we know about the causal factors and what that says about our efforts to try to prevent and treat these conditions," said Eddington.