Major Depressive Disorder Jannette Gonzalez Psychology Period 5

Definition:  Major Depressive Disorder: Major depressive disorder (also known as clinical depression, major depression, unipolar depression, or unipolar disorder) is a mental disorder characterized by an all- encompassing low mood accompanied by low self- esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities  Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, or miserable.

Major Depressive may affect people in different ways. Some people would have trouble sleeping and loosing weight. And others may sleep and eat well, but continuously feeling worthless and guilty. But others may look happy, but deep inside they feel like life doesn’t matter no more.

Etiology  Researchers believe that this disorder happens when their brain doesn’t function right and this maybe inherited from their parents./ Also an event that had an impact on them  People that have depressive may be stress daily for small situations and are always gloomy.  Most people get this disorder because they lost a loved one, but the sadness of losing a loved one can’t last forever, but if it does there's a chance that you may have this disorder if the sadness lasts more than 2 months.  Major depressive disorder commonly affects young adults. - Breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend - failing a class - illness or death in the family - parents divorcing - Childhood events, such as abuse

Associated Features (DSM-IV-TR):  Diagnostic Features of a Major Depressive Episode: -In order to be diagnosed with Major Depressive the episodes have to last for more than two weeks:  Depressed mood  Losing interest or pleasure in all daily activities  Feelings of worthlessness  Thoughts of suicide  Energy loss  Weight loss or gain  Having trouble falling asleep  Feeling stress for any little situation.

Prevalence:  Depression is common, it affects about 121 millions of people worldwide and it doesn’t matter what race, ethnicity and income level they are because anyone could have this disorder.  In a year, 5%-9% of women will go through this disorder while the percentage for men is 2%-3%.  Major depressive disorder is twice as common in females as in males.  15% of the people with Major depressive disorder end up committing suicide.

Treatment:  Medications to treat Major Depressive: *Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, and Zoloft -Electroconvulsive Therapy(ECT) is a treatment that clinician may recommend to their patients but it has side effects. -The side effects are long or short term memory loss, it could cause a seizure and causes brain damage.

Prozac(Side Effects): -Red Skin -High Fever -Sweating -Nausea -Vomiting -Headache -Dizziness -Feeling Nervous (Mood that changes from depressed to abnormally excited) Paxil(Side Effects): - Headache -Nausea -Weakness -Diarrhea

Prognosis:  The outcome with the treatment is usually successful for some patients but not always because if the patient stops taking the medication often they will start to feel stressed out and their symptoms will come back. So its important that the patient takes their medication daily.  During this disorder there’s a 5-10% chance that the person with this disorder will develop bipolar in the near future.

References:   depressive-disorder.html depressive-disorder.html  therapy-side-effects therapy-side-effects

Discussion:  If you had this disorder, would you risk your life knowing that the Electroconvulsive Therapy have side effects?