Conditions & Diseases: Psychological & Mental Health

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.

of those with the disorder than among the general population.

More than half of those that experience a major depressive episode will experience future depressive episodes at least once or twice per year. The number of major depressive episodes and the gravity of the symptoms increases when the depression is not treated when it occurs.

A person is suffering from major depression, (besides the depressed mood, diminished interest or pleasure in activities) he or she also experiences at least four of the following additional symptoms:
(1) changes in appetite and weight, sleep, and psychomotor activity,
(2) decreased energy,
(3) feelings of worthlessness or guilt,
(4) difficulty thinking, concentrating, and making decisions,
(5) recurrent thoughts of death, suicide ideation, plans, or attempts.

The mood of a depressed person is described as sad (in some cases the sad feelings are denied), hopelessness, discouraged, or irritated (persistent angry, tendency to respond to events with an 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 that 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, or retardation, which includes slow speech and thinking, 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 usually.

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
OmniMedicalSearch.com
Depression Bibliography