by Steve Christensen

Created on: March 09, 2010

Depression is characterized by a sense of sadness that is severe enough or persistent enough to interfere with a person’s normal daily function. Depression is often accompanied by a loss of interest in activities that are normally pleasurable for the individual in question; other physical and psychological symptoms are also common.

It is important to distinguish true depression from the low or discouraged mood – more accurately called demoralization – that accompanies significant disappointments or losses. While the feelings associated with demoralization can be quite keen, they can always be explained by a discrete event, they usually don’t cause profound or prolonged loss of function, they typically resolve when the affected person’s situation improves, and suicidal thoughts are less likely to occur. However, it is possible for demoralized people to become depressed if they are susceptible (due to heredity or psychosocial factors) or if events contribute to a worsening of their circumstances.

Depression Affects All Age Groups

With the exception of the very young (the condition is rare in children under the age of six) depression affects people at all stages of life. A depressed person’s symptoms are influenced by his or her age. Unfortunately, some of these signs and symptoms can be confused with other conditions, no matter what age the person is. Furthermore, a bona fide diagnosis of depression cannot be made until the symptoms have been present for at least two weeks. Hence, it is quite possible for a physician to miss a patient’s symptoms or even to mistake one’s depression for a different medical condition.

In order to help busy doctors more readily recognize depression in their patients (this condition is not readily detected during the typical brief office visit) several screening tools have been developed that identify a person’s risk for depression. While these instruments – most are in-office surveys – do not serve to diagnose depression, they do alert physicians to a patient’s increased likelihood of being depressed. Laypeople can use many of the same approaches that doctors use to identify depression in family members; indeed, because friends and loved ones have contact with a person over an extended period of time, their observations can be the first clues that an individual is depressed.

Depression in Children and Adolescents

Depression in children and adolescents is associated

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>