characteristics of depression Flashcards

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1
Q

what are the categories of depression and depressive disorders recognised by the DSM-5?

A
  • major depressive disorder: severe but often short-term depression
  • persistent depressive disorder: long-term or recurring depression, including sustained major depression and what used to be called dysthymia
  • disruptive mood dysregulation disorder: childhood temper tantrums
  • premenstrual dysphoric disorder: disruption to mood prior to and / or during menstruation
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2
Q

what are the behavioural characteristics of depression?

A
  • altered activity levels
  • disruption to sleep and eating behaviour
  • aggression and self-harm
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3
Q

behavioural characteristics of depression: low activity levels

A
  • typically, people with depression have reduced energy levels, making them lethargic
  • this has a knock-on effect, with people tending to withdraw form work, education and social life
  • in extreme cases, the person may not be able to get out of bed
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4
Q

behavioural characteristics of depression: high activity levels

A
  • depression can lead to psychomotor agitation, which is the opposite of lethargy
  • agitated individuals struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down a room
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5
Q

behavioural characteristics of depression: disruption to sleep behaviour

A
  • depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour
  • a person may experience reduced sleep (insomnia), particularly premature waking
  • a person may also have an increased need for sleep (hypersomnia)
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6
Q

behavioural characteristics of depression: disruption to eating behaviour

A
  • similarly to sleeping behaviours, appetite and eating may increase or decrease
  • this leads to weight gain or loss
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7
Q

behavioural characteristics of depression: aggression

A
  • people with depression are often irritable, and in some cases they can become verbally or physically aggressive
  • this can have serious knock-on effects on many aspects of their life
    > eg. someone experiencing depression might display verbal aggression by ending a relationship or quitting a job
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8
Q

behavioural characteristics of depression: self-harm

A
  • depression can also lead to physical aggression directed against the self
  • this includes self-harm, often in the form of cutting, or suicide attempts
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9
Q

what are the emotional characteristics of depression?

A
  • lowered mood
  • anger
  • lowered self-esteem
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10
Q

emotional characteristics of depression: lowered mood

A
  • there is more to clinical depression than having a lowered mood or feeling sad
  • lowered mood is still a defining emotional element of depression but it is more pronounced than in the daily kind of experience of feeling lethargic and sad
  • people with depression often describe themselves as ‘worthless’ and ‘empty’
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11
Q

emotional characteristics of depression: anger

A
  • the experience more negative emotions than positive ones is not limited to sadness
  • people with depression also frequently experience anger, sometimes extreme anger
  • this can be directed at the self or others
  • on occasion, such emotions lead to the aggressive or self-harming behaviour
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12
Q

emotional characteristics of depression: lowered self-esteem

A
  • self-esteem is the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves
  • people with depression tend to report reduced self-esteem ie. like themselves less than usual
  • this can be quite extreme, with some people with depression describing a sense of self-loathing ie. hating themselves
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13
Q

what is the cognitive aspect of depression concerned with?

A
  • the ways in which people process information
  • people experiencing depression or who have experienced depression tend to process information about several aspects of the world quite differently from the ‘normal’ ways that people without depression think
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14
Q

what are the cognitive characteristics of depression?

A
  • poor concentration
  • attending to and dwelling on the negative
  • absolutist thinking
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15
Q

cognitive characteristics of depression: poor concentration

A
  • depression is associated with poor levels of concentration
  • the person may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would, or they might find it hard to make decisions that they would normally find straightforward
  • poor concentration and poor decision-making are likely to interfere with the individuals’ work
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16
Q

cognitive characteristics of depression: attending to and dwelling on the negative

A
  • when experiencing a depressive episode, people are inclined to pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives
  • people with depression also have a bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones
    > this is the opposite bias that most people have when not depressed
17
Q

cognitive characteristics of depression: absolutist thinking

A
  • most situations are not all-good or all-bad, but when a person is depressed they tend to think in these terms
  • this is sometimes called ‘black-and-white thinking’
  • this means that when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster