Conditions & Diseases: Psychological & Mental Health

Depression Information

Covers the 4 major types of depression as well as specific information for teenagers, women, men and the elderly.

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.

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 (3) inadequate prevention.

Article by Alina Morrow,
MS Psychology
OmniMedicalSearch.com
Depression Bibliography