Clinical Depression (Collection: Mental Health )

Depression is not an on or off thing - but rather occurs across a spectrum. You can be a little depressed, fairly depressed, totally depressed, etc. Formal medical diagnosis, however, does not recognize spectrum disorders very well. Medical diagnosis was designed to accommodate more discrete phenomena such as viruses that are either present or not present. The term Clinical Depression thus is the somewhat arbitrary 'line-in-the-sand' that the medical establishment has drawn to distinguish mild (sub-clinical) depression (not in need of serious treatment) from more moderate to severe forms of depression (which are in need of treatment). Symptoms of depression usually consist of feelings of sadness, guilt, or unworthiness; crying spells; disturbance in appetite and weight changes; and disturbance in sleep. Excellent psychotherapeutic treatments are available including Cognitive behavioral therapies based on the pioneering work of Aaron Beck, MD, and Interpersonal Therapy for Depression based on the work of Myrna Weissman, Ph.D. Of course, I don't need to mention that many anti-depressant medicines are available as well including Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and many others.

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