Although everyone can feel depressed at times, the medical condition of depression is much more than ordinary sadness.  Clinical depression includes feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.  People suffering from depression often feel worthless.  These feelings can last for weeks or months…or longer.

When diagnosing depression, most experts refer to the DSM-IV, a manual used to diagnose mental disorders.  According to the manual, a person has depression if he has at least five of the following nine symptoms for at least two weeks:

• Depressed moods during most of the day, especially upon waking in the morning
• Insomnia or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping) nearly every day
• A loss of energy or fatigue nearly every day
• A loss of interest or diminished pleasure in most activities nearly every day
• Feelings of guilt or worthlessness nearly every day
• Significant weight change (a gain or loss of more than 5% of body weight in one month)
• Recurring thoughts of death or suicide
• A sense of restlessness or being slowed down

If a person exhibits at least five of the above symptoms and those symptoms cause the person significant distress or impairment, he will be diagnosed with clinical depression.

Treatment for Depression

Most people who are diagnosed with depression will be treated with an antidepressant medication.  There are many types of antidepressant medications.  Some patients may need to try more than one medication before finding relief from their depression; other patients may find that the first medication that their doctor prescribes works well.  Depression medications may have side effects; weight gain and loss of sex drive are two of the most common.

Depression can also be effectively treated through psychotherapy.  Also called talk therapy, psychotherapy involves the patient sitting and talking with a trained professional.  Many experts consider psychotherapy in conjunction with medication to be the most effective treatment for depression.

There are two other treatment options that are not used as frequently.  These are electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).  These are typically used when medication is not effective or when medication might endanger the patient.

Tags | Depression