Patients with depressed mood experience loss of energy and interest, feeling of guilt, difficulty in concentration, loss of appetite and sexual activity and thought of death or suicide.
Depression is a type of mood disorder characterized by low mood, lack of energy and lack of interest.
Feeling sad or low or disinterested sometime is considered as normal variation of mood. And it gets corrected on its own or due to some distraction in the thought process. However Depression is defined persistent and pervasive low mood the period of at least 2 weeks. And it does get corrected on its own requiring some or other intervention.
Depression is considered as the most common of all Psychological disorders. It is found in 17% of the general population which means 17 out of every 100 people are depressed at any point of time.
As mentioned above depression is a persistent low mood for more than 2 weeks. And it is characterized by Lowness of mood, Anhedonia (lack of interest in all activities which used to be pleasurable earlier, Anergia (lack of energy or easy fatigability).
Person with depression would usually complain of- lack of interest or pleasure, easy fatigability, disturbed sleep and appetite, loss of libido, pessimistic thoughts towards self, world and future, suicidal ideations, feeling of guilt and self-remorse, multiple and unexplained bodily symptoms, early morning worsening of mood, social withdrawn behavior and psychomotor retardation or agitation.
Depression carries a high risk of suicide. According to the studies 90% of the suicide victims are moderately to severely depress at the time of committing suicide. Identifying and treating depression correctly can reduce the number of deaths due to suicide.
Depression can very well be treated with the help of medications and psychotherapy. Combination of both gives best results.
Most of the time, it isn’t. Like Schizophrenia there are so many factors which decide the duration of treatment and with proper supervision and regular follow-ups side effects due to drugs can be minimized to the significant extent.
Most common Psychotherapy used to treat Depression is Cognitive Behavior therapy which aims at identifying maladaptive negative thoughts, then modifying those thoughts. It also teaches the individual to think more rationally and logically.
Yes, but in few cases it is endogenous (i.e. arising from the forces within the individual).