<ul>
<li>Melancholia shows a clear pattern of symptoms and signs. </li>
<li>Sufferers experience a gloominess and have no desire to socialize. </li>
<li>They also lack energy and have difficulty concentrating. </li>
<li>Episodes typically appear from nowhere.</li>
</ul>

Melancholia: A distinct pattern

<ul>
<li>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. </li>
<li>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. </li>
<li>This model also treats melancholia as a major depression "specifier" and not as a disorder in its own right.</li>
</ul>

Sadness and depression

<ul>
<li>Melancholic depression, as described by Hippocrates, was considered a unique condition that struck people out of the blue. </li>
<li>It is now known as "endogenous depression" (coming from within) and different from depression in response to external stressors.</li>
<li>In 1980, depressive disorders were remodeled as a single entity that only varies by degrees of severity.</li>
</ul>

Melancholic depression

<ul>
<li>Individuals suffering from melancholia report a family history of "depression," bipolar disorder, or suicide. </li>
<li>Melancholy is biologically underpinned rather than caused by external stressors or psychological factors, such as personality type.</li>
<li>Treatment consists of antidepressant drugs and electroconvulsive therapy (which is rarely needed.)</li>
</ul>

Melancholia: Physical underpinnings

Melancholia has a strong genetic contribution, so it's largely biologically underpinned rather than caused by social factors (stressors) or psychological factors, such as personality style.

Melancholia: A distinct pattern

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