Depression Information - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Psychological & Mental Health

Depression

See Also:
Depression: Introduction & Overview
Depression: Causes & Risk Factors
Depression: Symptoms
Depression: 4 Types
· Major Depression: Overview & Treatment
· Chronic Depression (Dysthymia): Overview & Treatment
· Seasonal Affective Disorder: OverView & Treatment
· Postpartum Depression: Overview & Treatment

Depression Introduction & Overview

Depression is one of the most common and recurrent disorders that affects people today. It affects a person’s physical, emotional, social and psychological well-being. People that suffer from depression experience a low mood, profound and persisting feelings of sadness or despair, decreased self-esteem and confidence, loss of interest in things that were pleasurable in the past, as well as appetite and sleep disturbance. Unhappy feelings, sadness, and low spirit can be occasionally experienced by everybody without interfering with normal life. However, those feelings become signs of a depressive disorder when they dominate the person’s everyday life and cause physical and mental deterioration.

Depression can affect people of all ages, both men and women with an average onset age in the mid-20s.

Statistics show that among the general population, depression affects 10 to 20 percent of women and 5 to 12 percent of men. Among the adult population, depression affects 5 to 9 percent of women, and 2 to 3 percent of men. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 2.5 percent of children and 8.3 percent adolescents also suffer from depression. Unfortunately, a large portion of the population affected by depression remains undiagnosed and untreated.

The World Health Organization has ranked depression as one of the most disabling disorders in the world since depression can have a negative impact on one or both aspects of a person’s life: the intrapersonal level and the interpersonal level (family life, social life, work setting).

It is estimated that more than 340 million people worldwide and more than 18 million people in USA suffer from depression at any particular time. In addition to its prevalence, depression also has a high rate of recurrence. The recurrence rate may be associated with (1) genetic vulnerability (depression disorders are more common among first-degree biological relatives of a person suffering of depression), (2) early symptoms onset, (3) poor diagnosis and treatment (there is a greater risk to develop additional episodes of depression and to continue the pattern of partial interepisode recovery in individuals with partial remission) and (4) inadequate prevention.

See Also:
Depression: Introduction & Overview
Depression: Causes & Risk Factors
Depression: Symptoms
Depression: 4 Types
· Major Depression: Overview & Treatment
· Chronic Depression (Dysthymia): Overview & Treatment
· Seasonal Affective Disorder: OverView & Treatment
· Postpartum Depression: Overview & Treatment

Related:
Depression in Teenagers
Depression in the Elderly
Depression in Women
Depression in Men
Bipoloar Disorder

Article by Alina Morrow
MS Psychology
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com
Depression Bibliography

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Page Last Modified:
09/07/2010