Clinical Depression

Depression is a term used to describe a normal state of mind as well as a serious mental disorder. Normal depression is a mood state everyone experiences that involves short-lived states of sadness, pessimism, a sense of inferiority, and other negative feelings. It usually occurs in response to stressful or unpleasant experiences and generally does not exceed seven to ten days in length. A stricter definition of depression is a clinical diagnosis for someone suffering from a mental disorder. Unfortunate as it may seem, with the twist of a definition, depression can be transformed from a normal feeling to a deadly illness that involved over 100 million diagnosed patients worldwide in 1990. Clinical depression is a serious, clinically diagnosed depressive disorder.

Clinical depression involves the same negative feelings as normal depression but in a more intense and long lasting from. In addition to the psychological symptoms, there are many physical signs of depression including; problems in sleeping, a loss or great increase in appetite, and frequent fatigue or lack of energy. “Individuals with severe depression may even suffer from psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations of delusions in which they lose touch with reali

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” Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. One form of psychotherapy created by Aaron Beck, cognitive therapy, has been found to be the most effective form of therapy for depression. An example of this is something as simple as overgeneralization. In general these theories state that depression can be caused by a shortage of reinforcing positive experiences.

Although the diagnosis of depression may only be for people with family history or extremely stressful lives, it’s victims are growing in number across the globe. Genetic contributions to the behavioral phenomena of depression is very often assessed through family and twin studies. Biological based theories focus on genetic predisposition and irregularities in the chemistry of the brain. Patients who do not respond to any other form of treatment or those who are suicidal and try to harm themselves are given no other option than hospitalization. This drug, along with others such as Paxel and Zoloft, are called Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors. It does however allow the characteristic causes of all of the different types of depression to be broken up into several broad categories. There is no one cure for the minimum ten percent of Americans who are diagnosed in any given year, but with the new technology attained through research the recovery from depression is around eighty percent of those diagnosed.

“Based on the great variability individuals show in patterns of symptoms and their responsiveness to treatment, there seem to be many types of depression” (Kevin, 54).

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