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- What is depression?
- Symptoms of depression
- Causes of depression
- Prevention of depression
- Risk factors for depression
- Complications of depression
- When to see a doctor about depression
- Diagnosis of depression
- Conventional treatment of depression
- Alternative/complementary treatment of depression
- Living with depression
- Caring for someone with depression
Depression is a mental health disorder which affects the brain and causes dysfunction with mood, thoughts and feelings. Depression can seriously impact a person's ability to have a good quality of life, as it causes a number of symptoms which cause the person to isolate themselves from the world around them.
Depression is not a passing low mood, nor is it a sign of weakness, or an inability to cope. People who are depressed cannot just "snap out of it", as it isn't a normal low mood (which everyone experiences from time to time), it can be a serious disorder which is characterised by a number of symptoms, many of which are serious and can be life threatening (suicide) if not diagnosed and treated early.
Depression is one of the most common disorders that brings people to see a doctor. Depression can be triggered by a stressful event or it can be due to some type of imbalance in the brain's chemistry.
There are a few different forms of depression:
- Bipolar affective disorder - this type of depression is characterised by alternating depressive and euphoric episodes, which can change without any warning. Bipolar disorder causes severe mood swings. Bipolar disorder was previously known as manic depressive disorder
- Dysthmia - this type of depression has symptoms which lie somewhere between reactive depression and major depressive disorder. It has less symptoms with less duration than major depressive disorder, but it is not as mild as reactive depression. Dysthmia is generally not biological in origin (unlike major depressive disorder)
- Major depressive disorder - this type of depression is characterised by major depressive episodes, which occur more frequently and more severely than just feeling depressed due to a reaction to a stressful event in life. This type of depression is commonly genetic in origin and causes depression symptoms even without any stressful life events
- Post-partum depression - this type of depression affects women directly after giving birth and is characterised by an inability to bond with the baby, as well as other debilitating symptoms. Post-partum depression can be severe and requires medical intervention to prevent serious complications for both mother and baby
- Reactive depression - this type of depression is characterised by having a strong reaction to a stressful event(s) in life (such as losing a job or ending a long term relationship). While this type of depression has few or mild symptoms, it can become quite intense, so it should treated appropriately to prevent complications (such as suicide). This depression is also known as adjustment disorder with depressed mood and is the most common type of depression
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Facts about depression
- Many people (5-10% of the population) experience major depression at any given point in time
- Around 15-20% of all people will develop some form of depression in their life. This is approximately 1 in 5 people who will feel depressed at some point in their life
- Depression may occur due to a reaction to an intensely stressful situation(s) in life, which is the most common form of depression
- The tendency to develop major depression is an inherited disorder, which means that there may be a genetic component to it
- People who are depressed tend not to seek treatment
- Sixty percent of cases of clinical depression are considered to be treatment-resistant depression
- There are several different types of depression, which are characterised by the different symptoms that are present with each condition
- Depression is a real illness which can impact a number of areas in a person's life
- Men tend not to see their doctor (compared to women) about feelings of depression, as they seem to see it as a sign of weakness and an inability to cope with their life
- Feeling low, blue or sad after a particularly stressful event is normal, it is only when that low mood continues and is accompanied by other symptoms when depression can be diagnosed
- Some forms of depression are due to dysfunction in the chemicals (neurotransmitters and other substances) in the brain and this form of depression is hard to predict
- Depression can co-exist with a number of other disorders, which may precede the depression, trigger it, or be a consequence of it
- Alcohol and substance abuse often co-exist with depression
- Depressive illness is a disorder of the brain
- Studies of people with depression show their brains look different than people without depression
- People with depression have unbalanced levels of a number of important neurotransmitters, which regulate mood, thinking, sleep, appetite and behavior
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