Affective Disorders Flashcards
What are the two main classification systems for mental disorders?
ICD - 10
DSM - 5
What is depression?
A systemic symptom characterized by sadness, but can also cause other symptoms such as fatigue and pain
Often depression is a syndrome, a combination of different symptoms and signs that can differ between different people
What characteristics separate depression from episodes of sadness?
- Persistence of symptoms
- Pervasiveness (feeling all the time) of symptoms
- Degree of impairment
- Presence of symptoms and signs
What is anhedonia?
What is perplexity?
Anhedonia is the inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities
Perplexity refers to the feeling of being overwhelmed, unable to deal with or understand things
What is an idea of reference in psychiatry?
When a patient assumed something in their environment is happening to them even though there is no evidence to suggest this is the case
Eg. see a group of people laughring when you’re walking down the road and assume that they laughing at you
What is a delusion?
What is a hallucination?
Delusion - when a patient has an unshakeable belief in something which there is no evidence to indicate (eg. their organs are rotting)
Hallucination - having a sensory experience of something that isn’t really there
What are some of the psychological changes that can occur in patients with depression?
Changes in mood
- Anxiety, depression, perplexity, anhedonia
Changes in thought content
- Guilt, hopelessness, worthlessness, other neuroses
- Delusions, hallucinations, Ideas of reference
What are some of the pysical changes that can occur in patients with depression?
Changes in bodily function
- Fatigue, sleep, libido, appetite, constipation, pain
Changes in psychomotor function
- Agitation, retardation
What are some social changes that can occur in patients with depression?
Loss of interest
Apathy
Irritability
Withdrawal, loss of confidence, indecisiveness
Loss of concentration, registration and memory
What does apathy refer to in psychiatry?
Loss of interest in the patient surroundings
What does retardation refer to?
What does stupor refer to?
Retardation - a slowing of motor response including speech
Stupor - a state of extreme retardation in which consciousness is intact. Patient can’t move, speak, eat or drink. Once recovered can clearly recollect the events that occurred whilst under stupor
What are some of the classification guidelines for depression that are set forth by ICD-10?
- Lasts for longer than 2 weeks
- No hypomanic or manic episodes in lifetime
- Not attributable to any psychoactive substance or organic mental disorder
If depression is accompanied by psychotic episodes how is it defined?
What is it important to rule out?
Classified as SEVERE depression with psychotic episodes
Need to exclude other psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia first
What is somatic syndrome? What are the symptoms?
A syndrome of depressive symptoms that is classified as a depression syndrome in ICD-10
- Anhedonia
- Apathy, lack of emotion
- Waking about 2hrs earlier than normal time
- Depression is worse in the morning
- Objective evidence of retardation / psychomotor agitation
- Marked loss of apetite leading to weight loss
- Marked loss of libido
What does a patient need to be experiencing in order to get diagnosed with mild depression?
At least two of the following:
- Depressed mood for most of the day for 2+ weeks
- Anhedonia
- Decreased energy or increased fatigability
+ additional depressive symptoms to give a total of at least 4 symptoms