Signs of major depression may include feelings of hopelessness, increased irritability, loss of pleasure, difficulty concentrating or sleeping, or thoughts of death or suicide. Rather, it refers to depression that is more debilitating in nature. Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects the way you feel, think and behave, and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems.
You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and sometimes you may feel that life is not worth living. The severity of depression ranges from mild, temporary episodes of sadness to severe and persistent depression. Clinical depression is the most severe form of depression, also known as major depression or major depressive disorder. It is not the same as depression caused by a loss, such as the death of a loved one, or a medical condition, such as a thyroid disorder.
If you have depression that lasts 2 years or more, it's called persistent depressive disorder. This term is used to describe two conditions formerly known as dysthymia (persistent low-grade depression) and chronic major depression. An inherent drawback to the use of the ICD-10 criteria for depression is that most of the treatment research on which the guidelines should be based uses the DSM—IV criteria or earlier, essentially similar versions of the DSM (DSM—III and DSM—III—R). “As discussed below, the criteria are similar but not identical, and this has particular relevance to the “" threshold "” of the diagnosis of clinically significant depressive episode and, therefore, what is considered to be depressive symptoms below the threshold or below the threshold.”.
The criteria for diagnosing depressive episodes in ICD-10 and DSM-IV overlap considerably, but they have some differences of emphasis. In ICD-10, the patient should have two of the first three symptoms (depressed mood, loss of interest in daily activities, reduced energy) plus at least two of the remaining seven symptoms; while in DSM-IV the patient should have five or more than nine symptoms with at least one of the first two (depression) mood and loss of interest). Both diagnostic systems require that symptoms have been present for at least 2 weeks to make a diagnosis (but may be shorter in ICD-10 if symptoms are unusually severe or fast-onset). In both ICD-10 and DSM-IV, symptoms should result in impaired functioning that increases with the severity of the episode.
Table 69 compares the symptoms required in ICD-10 and DSM-IV. Both ICD-10 and DSM-IV classify clinically important depressive episodes as mild, moderate and severe according to the number, type and severity of symptoms present and the degree of functional impairment. Table 70 shows the number of symptoms required by each diagnostic system, which are less specific than DSM-IV. The ICD-10 prescriptive symptom counting approach tends to use only symptom counting to determine severity.
Traditionally, the minimum duration of persistent symptoms for major depression is 2 weeks and for chronic depression (or dysthymia) 2 years. These conventional definitions have been adopted in the absence of solid evidence, as there is only a modest empirical basis for the minimum duration (e.g. Angst %26 Merikangas, 200 and none that we could find for the “cut-off” between acute and chronic depression). As with severity, duration is best regarded as a dimension with a lower likelihood of remission with increasing chronicity over a given period of time (Van et al.
Therefore, conventional criteria are considered better as guides than as cut-off points. The minimum duration after which therapy provides more benefit than that resulting from spontaneous improvement is likely to be slightly longer than 2 weeks (possibly 2 to 3 months, Posternak et al. At age 2 it seems that the outcome is worse, which supports the consideration of chronicity when describing the disorder; however, the point at which acute becomes chronic is unclear and, in fact, may not be a significant question. There is some evidence that the outcome is worse after about 1 year (for example, Khan et al.
However, there seems to be little to be gained by redefining the duration of guidelines, provided that conventional definitions are recognized as merely indicators to include consideration of duration in relation to outcome and need for treatment. An influential model of the course of major depression proposes that the onset of an episode of depression consists of a worsening of symptoms on a continuum ranging from depressive symptoms to major depression. The improvement phases with treatment consist of the response (significant improvement) to remission (absence of depressive symptoms) which, if stable for 4 to 6 months, results in a (symptomatic) recovery, meaning that the episode is over (Frank et al. It is important to distinguish this use from recovery from more recent concepts related to the quality and meaning of life, despite the persistence of symptoms.
After recovery, a new episode of depression is considered a recurrence to distinguish it from a relapse of the same episode. There has been no consensus on how long a period of remission should last before recovery can be declared; different definitions result in different definitions of the duration of the episode and the time to total depressive relapse or below the threshold (Furukawa et al. Therefore, in practice it can be difficult to distinguish between relapse and recurrence, especially when people have mild residual symptoms. Follow-up studies of people with depression have shown that, in general, more time is spent with depressive symptoms below the threshold than with major depression and there is a variable individual pattern ranging from persistent chronic major depression, through significant but not total improvement (partial remission), to remission total and recovery (Judd et al.
DSM—IV defines complete remission when there has been no symptoms for at least 2 months. For partial remission, complete criteria for a major depressive episode are no longer met, or there are no substantial symptoms, but 2 months have not yet passed. DSM — IV specifies “with full recovery between episodes” if complete remission is achieved between the two most recent depressive episodes and “no full recovery between episodes” if complete remission is not achieved. In DSM IV, therefore, separate episodes are distinguished by at least 2 months from not meeting the criteria for major depression, which contrasts with the stricter requirements of the ICD-10 of 2 months without any significant symptoms.
Therefore, there is some ambiguity as to whether total remission is required to define separate episodes. These criteria led the GDGs to adopt a classification system for depression based on the DSM IV criteria. When evaluating an individual, it is important to evaluate three dimensions to diagnose a depressive disorder: (a) severity (symptomatology and social disability), (b) duration, and (c) course, as related but separate factors (see below). In addition, it was recognized that a single dimension of gravity was insufficient to fully capture its multidimensional nature.
As discussed above, the following depressive symptoms require evaluation to determine the presence of major depression:. Symptoms must be experienced with a sufficient degree of severity and persistence to be considered definitively present. At least one major symptom required; both major symptoms would be expected in moderate and severe major depression. Three or more symptoms indicate a very high chance of major depression.
However, this does not replace the need to evaluate somatic symptoms as an aid in determining severity and to help judge post-treatment response. This limits the usefulness of the abbreviated list in practice and may be more useful when there are confusing somatic symptoms due to physical illness. Symptom severity and degree of functional impairment are highly correlated (e.g., Zimmerman et al. Since the 2-year limit is arbitrary, it is best in practice to consider the specific duration and degree of persistence of symptoms for an individual against the background of the severity and course of the disorder.
Symptoms of depression range from mild to severe. In its mildest form, you may simply feel persistently low in spirit, while severe depression can make you feel suicidal, that life is no longer worth living. Severe depression can be a very painful experience, both for the person who has depression and for those who love them. Severe depression means that a person's symptoms of depression are very severe, often enough to interfere with many daily functions.
Keep in mind that treatment plans are different for each person depending on the type of depression and the severity of symptoms. Depression assessment scales and questionnaires provide ranges that are proposed to describe the different severity of depression. . .
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