WHAT ARE DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS?

(Dr Syed Ahmer MRCPsych, Consultant Psychiatrist, New Zealand)

- Sadness is a normal human experience. It is a normal reaction to loss, just like anxiety is a normal reaction to threat or danger

- ‘Depressed mood’ can be a symptom of a number of psychiatric and physical illnesses

- A “Depressive Disorder’ is a mental illness which is distinct from both normal sadness, and the ‘depressed mood’ as a symptom of other illnesses.

The central features of depressive disorders are;

- Depressed mood; feeling sad, low, miserable, all the time or almost all the time. Mood does not improve in circumstances when normal sadness would have lifted.

- Negative thinking;

o in relation to self: low self-esteem, worthlessness
o in relation to future; hopelessness, life not worth living
o guilt, self-blame; previous trivial events, letting someone down

- Anhedonia; inability to enjoy previously pleasurable activities;

- Decreased energy; always feeling tired, everything is an effort

- Slowness; psychomotor retardation, thinking, talking and speaking become slower, Question and Answer latency

(Credit: Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, 7th edition)

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