Deppression

Question 1

What is depression?

Answer 1

A mood disorder where an individual feels sad and lacks interest in their usual activities

Question 2

What are the four categories of depression recognised by the DSM-5?

Answer 2

1. Major depressive disorder – severe but often short-term depression
2. Persistent depressive disorder – long-term or recurring depression
3. Disrupted mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) – childhood temper tantrums and chronic irritability
4. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) – disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation

Question 3

What three types of characteristics can we use to identify the symptoms of a depression?

Answer 3

1. Emotional (how it makes you feel)
2. Cognitive (how it makes you think)
3. Behavioural (how it makes you act

Question 4

What are the behavioural symptoms of depression?

Answer 4

Shift in activity level – either reduced, which displays as lethargy (cannot get out of bed), or increased, in the form of psychomotor agitation (inability to relax resulting in pacing up and down)

Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour – reduced sleep (insomnia) or increased need for sleep (hypersomnia) appetite may increase or decrease (weight gain or loss

Aggression and self-harm – can be verbally or physically aggressive due to frequent feelings of irritability; can lead to physical aggression directed against the self (self- harm or suicide attempts)

Question 5

What are the emotional symptoms of depression?

Answer 5

Lowered mood – sadness and loss of pleasure in normal activities as a result of feelings of worthlessness and emptiness

Anger – directed at the self or others; experiencing this emotion can often be projected through behaviour

Lowered self-esteem – they like themselves less than usual and have extreme feelings of self-loathing or hatred

Question 6

What are the cognitive symptoms of depression?

Answer 6

Poor concentration – unable to stick with a task, trouble making decisions; this characteristic can interfere with work

Negative schema – always expect things to turn out badly as they attend to negative aspects of situation rather than positive (i.e. see things as glass half empty rather than half-full); can have a bias towards recalling unhappy events

Absolutist, or ‘black and white’ thinking – see things as either all bad or all good; when a situation is unfortunate they see it as an absolute disaster