TYPES OF DEPRESSION
According to modern psychiatry, depression is categorized as:
Major depressive disorder or Unipolar disorder
- This type of depression can occur only once in a person’s lifetime, or in a form of episodes, which usually last for at least 2 weeks.
- It mostly begins during the early adulthood.
- Occurs twice as often in women than in men and has no correlation with social class.
- Some observations have proved that it may be hereditary.
Manic-depressive disorder or Bipolar disorder
- This type of depression have both mania and depression and involves extreme changes in mood from high (manic) to low (depressive), or mixed episodes and then back again with periods of normal mood in between. About 15% of these patients only display mania.
- Average age of onset is 30 years.
- Occurs equally in women and men and also have high incidence in upper socioeconomic groups.
- It usually tends to run in families.
Under special conditions (physiological or circumstantial), depression can be further classified into:
- Old age Depression
- Depression in Children
- Postpartum depression is depression in women that occurs after child birth.
- Seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression which is usually seen during winter.
- Cyclothymia is similar to manic depression or bipolar disorder, except that the changes in the mood are less severe, but it doesn’t last for long.
- Dysthmia is chronic low-grade depression.