Definition of depression Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or activities of daily living. Honest signalling theory: When social partners have conflicts of interest, 'cheap' signals of need, such as crying, might not be believed. In the field of psychiatry, the word depression can also have this meaning of low mood but more specifically refers to a mental illness when it has reached a severity and duration to warrant a diagnosis, whether there is an obvious situational cause or not; see Clinical depression. "The catecholamine hypothesis of affective disorders: a review of supporting evidence". The loss of a loved spouse, child, friend or relation, a physical illness or loss of lifestyle, tends to lead to feelings of depression. For individuals who are not genuinely in need, the fitness cost of major depression is very high because it threatens the flow of fitness benefits. Many people identify the feeling of being depressed as "being blue", "feeling sad for no reason", or "having no motivation to do anything". Because mental illness does not have the visible symptoms most non-mental disorders do, treatment has often been considered less important or deserved than for physical illness. Definition of depression. It may also be associated with apathy, boredom, hollowness and lack of any positive source of interest or joy. Aspartame was associated with a significant difference in number and severity of symptoms for patients with a history of depression in an experiment [24]. The term is generally not used in countries which instead use the ICD-10 system, but the diagnosis of depressive episode is very similar to an episode of major depression. SSRIs are said to work by preventing the reabsorption of serotonin by the nerve cell, thus maintaining the levels the brain needs to function effectively, although two researchers recently demonstrated that this is a marketing technique rather than a scientific portrayal of how the drugs actually work. This loss may be obvious, such as the death of a loved one, or having moved from one home to another, or less obvious, such as disillusionment about one's career prospects. Definition of depression. Online depression test
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