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Lecture Notes

So now let's move on to depression. Depression is just one type of mood disorder, and it can vary in both severity—how intense the feelings of depression are—and also in duration, or the length of time that we experience these feelings. And so from time to time we all experience depressive reactions, and these are short in duration, and the severity lessens over time. So, for example, let's say you get a job or school rejection letter. Initially you might feel sad or feel worthless, but that doesn't last very long and that feeling gets better with time. Dysthymia is similar to depressive reactions but much longer in duration, so instead of those feelings going away, they just persist. It's described as a chronic form of depression that lasts a longer period of time. And finally, major depression is a serious condition that leads to the person's inability to function, and potentially suicide if the person isn't treated, and it's defined as having one or more major depressive episodes over a two-week period. So these are very serious feelings that go well beyond our normal depressive reactions that we all experience from time to time.