What Is Depression (Major Depression)?

Major Depression: Overview

Major Depression affects 15% of Americans at some point during their lives, and 100 million people are affected on any given day. The age of onset is fairly evenly spread among people. The mean age is 40, but can onset from childhood to seniors. It can come on suddenly in days, or build over years. It can be predated by anxiety, phobias, panic and Dysthymia. On average, the course of Major Depression runs 3 to 9 months if untreated, and 85% cases resolve within 1 year. Over 1/2 of people who experience major depression only have one episode. With each successive episode, the patient has a 15% risk that their next episode will be a manic episode, changing their diagnosis to Bipolar Disorder.

In the end, approximately 15-20% of those with major depression become chronically depressed. Approximately 15% of patients with major depression may commit suicide, as well, with men committing suicide at a rate 2 times as often as women.

The main feature of Major Depression is either an unpleasant mood (feeling down, irritable or apprehensive) or a loss of pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Contrary to popular thought, this second feature, loss of enjoyment is the main symptom described by many depressed people, rather than the more well known unpleasant mood.

There are 3 major subtypes of major depression: psychotic, melancholic, and atypical features. Major Depression with psychotic features, as it implies means that the client displays either delusions or hallucinations. The psychotic symptoms are worse during the first 6 months, and lessen after that. Major depression with melancholic features means that the client has features that are primarily seen in strictly biologically based depressions. This means they tend to feel worse, but have a higher chance of being cured by biological treatments such as medication and ECT, rather than straight psychotherapy. Finally, major depressive episode with atypical features is the reverse of a melancholic episode. This appears to be a reaction to an extreme reaction to some stimulant in the environment. They tend to respond better to Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors and Monamine Re-uptake Inhibitors.

Other symptoms of Major Depression may include the loss of appetite, unintentional loss or gain of weight of over 5% of body weight, sleeping too little or too much, psychomotor retardation or agitation (slow or excessive movements), decreased energy and fatigue, and decreased sex drive. Additionally, sufferers often feel worse in the morning and better at night.

They often have decreased concentration and slowed thinking, along with a negative world-view. When taken together, this combination makes the person with Major Depression prone to the inability to make decisions, and they are overwhelmed by seemingly easy tasks. They often view decisions in their personal lives as choices between something bad and something worse.