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Depression Defined by M. L. Glaser, MD. Depression in psychiatry basically means feeling down or sad more days than not for a few months. Depression can be mild or severe. Some people don't acknowledge to themselves that they feel sad so there are other signs of feeling sad than just sadness. Signs of feeling down include obvious things such as crying spells but also includes things that are not so obvious. The first things affected by depression are usually sleep and energy. Depressed people either can't sleep despite feeling tired, or they sleep to much and can't get out of bed in the morning to go to work or school. Depressed people usually feel tired most of the day until it is time to go to sleep. They also tend to not be able to concentrate and are forgetful. Appetite can go up or down. Interest in sex usually drops. Signs of more severe depression include very low self esteem, hopelessness, and inability to enjoy anything (called anhydonia). Depressed mood in psychiatry can include many different diagnosis. A person who is depressed because of a bad situation has an "adjustment disorder" diagnosis. A person with a chronic low grade mild depression without severe episodes for a long time has "disthymia". A person with a specific period of severe depression has "major depression". Whenever a patient sees a doctor to evaluate their depression, the doctor should always check for bipolar disorder since %70 of patients with bipolar disorder (manic- depression) first see a doctor for depression and not for mania. Some people with major depression may also hallucinate (hear voices) or have delusions (paranoia) only during periods of severe depression but not when they have a good/stable mood. Depression is highly genetic. This means that if your ancestors have or had depression, then you are at a much higher risk for depression than a person with no family history of the illness. Why should you treat depression instead of just living with it? Depression, like most psychiatric illnesses is neuro-degenerative. This means that it leads to nerve cell death. Thus, over time the depression will likely get worse and more difficult to treat. As a person gets older, untreated depression will get more severe, last longer, and the person will not return to pre-depressed levels of functioning. Treatment for depression, either medication or talk therapy, leads to nerve cell re-growth and repair. However, the longer the depression and the more episodes of major depression one has, the harder it is to treat. |
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