| Depression |
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Types
of Depressive illnesses
Depression can range from mild, causing just a
little disruption to daily life, through to severe,
causing major incapacity and presenting a serious
threat to life.
If unrecognised and untreated, depression can continue
in a chronic form for many years, causing continuing
damage to relationships, careers and self-esteem.
Alternatively it can occur in distinct episodes,
each lasting for several weeks or months. Without
treatment, episodes tend to become more frequent
and more severe as time goes by.
There are different types of depression and
they probably have different causes, but we still
have a lot to learn about this illness. The chronic
form of depression is sometimes called dysthymia.
The episodic form is usually referred to as major
depression or unipolar depression. In bipolar
disorder, episodes of depression are followed
by episodes of mania, when a person feels elated
or 'high' and is unusually active.
Other types of depression include atypical depression.
In seasonal depression the episodes occur regularly
at certain times of the year. Probably the most
serious but least common form of depression is accompanied
by a loss of touch with reality, together with delusions
and possibly hallucinations and is called psychotic
depression.
Depression is sometimes considered as either reactive
(resulting from stress or adverse life events),
or endogenous (occurring from 'within' and not because
of external circumstances).
It is not always possible to neatly divide depression
into these categories and there is a lot of overlap.
Whatever the type or cause of depression, the illness
probably results from changes to chemicals in the
brain called neurotransmitters. These chemicals
transmit messages between brain cells, and disturbances
can lead to the changes to mood, thinking, sleep
and appetite which occur in depression. The role
of antidepressants is to restore the normal function
of neurotransmitters.
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