Why melancholia must be understood as distinct from depression
Curated from: theconversation.com
Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:
4 ideas
·1.56K reads
16
Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
Melancholic depression
- Melancholic depression, as described by Hippocrates, was considered a unique condition that struck people out of the blue.
- It is now known as "endogenous depression" (coming from within) and different from depression in response to external stressors.
- In 1980, depressive disorders were remodeled as a single entity that only varies by degrees of severity.
40
731 reads
Sadness and depression
- The extension of "clinical depression" to include sadness created concern. Everyone feels down or sad sometimes, and usually, these moods pass without long-term consequences.
- Clinical depression is more severe, such as losing sleep or thinking life isn't worth living and extends for a longer period. Lumping them together and ignoring the differing causes may lead to an inappropriate therapeutic approach.
- This model also treats melancholia as a major depression "specifier" and not as a disorder in its own right.
30
270 reads
Melancholia: A distinct pattern
- Melancholia shows a clear pattern of symptoms and signs.
- Sufferers experience a gloominess and have no desire to socialize.
- They also lack energy and have difficulty concentrating.
- Episodes typically appear from nowhere.
33
227 reads
Melancholia: Physical underpinnings
- Individuals suffering from melancholia report a family history of "depression," bipolar disorder, or suicide.
- Melancholy is biologically underpinned rather than caused by external stressors or psychological factors, such as personality type.
- Treatment consists of antidepressant drugs and electroconvulsive therapy (which is rarely needed.)
31
337 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Andrea A.'s ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about health with this collection
Conflict resolution
Motivating and inspiring others
Delegation
Related collections
Similar ideas
1 idea
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) - The Human Condition
thehumancondition.com
3 ideas
What Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?
google.com
7 ideas
Is everything you think you know about depression wrong?
theguardian.com
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates