What is Depression?
Everyone feels sad at some point - it's only natural. But what doctors call clinical depression is very different from just being "down in the dumps." The main difference is that the sad or empty mood doesn't go away after a couple of weeks, and everyday activities like sleeping, socializing or working can be affected. A person with depression may also have some or all of these additional symptoms:1
- Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt
- Significant change in weight or appetite
- Fatigue, loss of energy
- Agitation, restlessness, irritability
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
- Thoughts of death or suicide
- It's important to recognize the signs of depression and get help from a doctor - with proper treatment almost all depressed people can get better.
- There's no single known cause of depression, but we do know biological and social factors play a role.
- Medical research has shown that depression may be related to a chemical imbalance of serotonin, one of the substances called neurotransmitters that transport signals between nerve cells in the brain. It's believed that this is the same kind of chemical imbalance associated with panic disorder and OCD.
- Certain life difficulties such as the loss of a loved one, divorce, stress at work, or a series of disappointments can contribute to depression. And sometimes, depression may just run in the family.
- In the United States as many as 31 million people have experienced depression sometime during their lifetime, and more than 19 million Americans -- approximately one in 10 adults -- suffer from depression each year.
- Women appear to have a 60 percent higher rate of depression than that seen in men.
- The average age of onset is the early twenties.1 Nevertheless, depression can occur at any age. As many as 15 percent of people over the age of 65 experience some symptoms of depression,3 and approximately 15 to 25 percent of nursing home residents may be diagnosed as suffering from depression.
- Depression is vastly underdiagnosed and undertreated: only 10 percent of those suffering from depression receive adequate treatment. Without treatment, symptoms can persist for months, years or a lifetime.
- Depression is generally treated with medications, psychotherapy or a combination of the two. Increasingly, depression is being recognized as a recurrent, long-term illness -- much like high blood pressure -- that needs ongoing treatment even after acute symptoms have resolved. With the appropriate use of antidepressant medication, some 70 percent of depressed patients can be successfully treated. Various forms of psychotherapy (also known as "talk therapy") may also be used to treat depression and to address specific problems in a patient's life,
- People with depression often have coexisting conditions, such as panic disorder and OCD, that add to the psychological suffering they experience. Up to 3.5 percent of the U.S. population, or more than six million people, suffer from panic disorder at some point in their lives, and as many as 65 percent of them also suffer from depression.2 <
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