Depression (Collection: Mental Health )

Depression is a member of a family of mood regulation disorders. Clinicians differentiate among these disorders based on mood 'episode' type. There are three sorts of mood episodes; depressive, manic and mixed. During depressive episodes a person feels depressed, during manic episodes a person feels energized and over-happy, and during a mixed episode they just feel all messed up (depressed and energized at once). Most of the time, when someone talks about depression, they are referring to what is clinically termed unipolar depression, which is characterized by the presence of depressive episodes only. However, other forms of depression exist, such as bipolar depression (manic-depression) which is characterized by swings over time between depressive, and manic or mixed episodes. The clinical name for a significant unipolar depression is a Major Depressive Disorder. In a Major Depressive Disorder, a person experiences some of the following symptoms for more than two weeks: depressed mood, diminished pleasure in formerly pleasurable things, altered sleep and eating patterns (either more or less than normal), fatigue, agitation and irritability, difficulty concentrating and a sense of worthlessness. Suicidal ideation may be present. A small but significant minority of depressed persons do complete suicides so all suicidal statements should be taken seriously. Also, in very severe depressions, some persons experience delusions. People generally recover from depressive episodes over time, but become more vulnerable to experiencing depression again as a result of the experience. There are effective medicines and psychotherapies for depression. The best psychotherapies (cognitive behavioral therapy for depression) are as effective or more effective than medicines, and have the added benefit of helping persons learn how to resist future depressions. See the Depression Page for more information.

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