Depression

Major Depression Introduction & Overview

Major depression, also known as a unipolar depression, major depressive disorder, major depressive episode, or clinical depression, is a recurrent disorder characterized by a depressed mood and/or diminished interest or pleasure in nearly all activities with symptoms that lasts at least 2 weeks. In children and adolescents, major depression is characterized by an irritated mood rather than sadness.

Major depression affects 15 million Americans adults or 5 to 8 percent of the adult population. Major depression differs from the common down moods and temporary sadness common in life.

A major depressive episode is persistent and it’s symptoms interfere with the person’s everyday life routine, thoughts, behavior, mood, activity, and mental and physical health.

Major depression is 2x more common among women than men. Also, the disorder is 1.5 to 3x more common among first-degree biological relatives of those with the disorder than among the general population.

The mood of a depressed person is described as sad (in some cases the sad feelings are denied), hopelessness, discouraged, or irritated (persistent anger, tendency to respond to events with angry outburst or blaming others, or an exaggerated frustration over minor matters). In some cases, the depressed mood can be read on the person’s facial expression or behavior. Some people complain of somatic discomforts such as body aches or pains rather than reporting sad feelings.

The loss of interest or pleasure, symptoms present in almost all depressed people, is described as a loss of interest in hobbies, a loss of enjoyment feelings in activities that were pleasurable in the past. The person withdrawals socially, neglects favorite activities, and even experiences a significant reduction of sexual desire.

Appetite change varies among depressed people. Some experience a reduced appetite, feeling like they have to force themselves to eat, while others experience an increased appetite and may crave specific foods (such as carbohydrates).

One of the most significant sleep disturbances associated with major depression is insomnia, that can vary between initial insomnia (difficulty falling asleep), middle insomnia (walking up during night while being unable to fall back to sleep), terminal insomnia (waking too early and being unable to fall back to sleep), and in some cases hypersomnia (oversleeping either during night, or during daytime).

Psychomotor changes vary betweens two phases: agitation, which includes the inability to sit still, pacing, hand wringing, or pulling or rubbing of the skin, clothing or other objects, slow body movements, increased pauses before answering, decreased speech volume, inflection, amount, variety of content, or muteness.

Decreased energy is experienced as tiredness and fatigue without substantial physical exertion. Also, the efficiency level and the daily tasks decrease either because the persons feels exhausted fast, or the time needed to accomplish a task takes more than usual.

The sense of worthlessness or guilt may include unrealistic negative evaluation of one’s worth, guilt or rumination over minor past failings. The person can misinterpret neutral events as proves of personal defects and has an exaggerated sense of responsibility over harmful events.

Depressed people may experience thoughts of death, suicide ideation, and even suicide attempts. The death thoughts range from beliefs that others would be better if they were dead, recurrent thoughts of committing suicide to planning how to actually do kill themselves.

Article by Alina Morrow
MS Psychology
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com

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