Chad Smith

Mr. Jocham

Ailment Project

5/20/11

Major Depressive Disorder

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all encompassing low mood followed by low self-esteem , and by loss of pleasure or interest in enjoyable activities.

Definition

• This disorder is a disabling condition which mostly affects an individual’s family, work, and your sleeping and eating pattern.

• Over 3% of U.S. citizens have committed suicide as a result of major depressive disorder.

The EFX of M.M.D

• Usually people with depression are expected to have a shorter life expectancy because of suicide and greater susceptibility to the disorder.

• Researchers are still trying to determine if medication facilitates suicide.

The EFX of M.M.D.(Cont’d.)

• Causes of M.M.D. include psychological, psycho-social, hereditary, biological, and evolutionary factors

Causes

• The three common treatments for M.M.D. include medication, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive therapy.

Treatments

• Antidepressants are the most common medication used in treating major depressive disorder

Medication

• This is delivered to individuals suffering from this by psychotherapists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, counselors, and other medical professionals pertaining to this disorder

• Psychotherapy has shown to be success amongst older people with the disorder.

Psychotherapy

• This is a procedure in which pulses of electricity are sent to the brain to induce a seizure while the patient is on anesthesia.

• This usually has a quicker effect than most antidepressant therapies

Electroconvulsive Therapy

• Melancholic depression- Loss of pleasure in most normal activities

• Atypical depression- Mood reactivity which includes significant weight gain, increased sleeping pattern, and loss of social skills.

• Catatonic depression- Severe depression that involves disturbances of motor behavior, but it’s mostly rare.

• Postpartum depression- The intense disabling depression that affects women after giving birth.

• Seasonal depression- Depression that involves depressive episodes that occur in autumn or winter, but starts to ease during spring.

Subtypes

• Most major depressive episodes tend to ease and resolve eventually over time with or without having treatment.

Prognosis

It’s a rainy day today and I’m in my house look out the window with sorrow just waiting for the sky to clear.

“Rain, rain, go away!”

I always feel sorry for myself, but today it has gotten worse.

“Oh, woe is me”

My home is my comfort zone, but it also feels like solitary confinement because I feel alone and out of touch with the “outside world”.

Isolation

It’s just that I’m ashamed of myself and I don’t want anybody to look at my ugly face.

“It’s not that I’m bored with school…”

• I feel inferior to others and I practically let people walk over me like a mat.

I’m weak

• I feel like my appetite has increased and now I find myself eating every single minute.

• I mostly gorge myself with junk food like ice cream, chocolate, and cake.

Eat! Eat! Eat!

• I don’t really enjoy all the normal activities I used to do.

Loss of Interest

• Today this morning, I would usually wake up at eight in the morning, but now it’s two in the afternoon and I still haven’t woken up.

“I just wanna sleep”

• When I step out of class, everybody starts laughing at me and that just worsens my day in school.

“Stop Laughing at me”

• I feel that I’m so ugly that I need to put a brown paper bag over my head.

“Brown paper bag”