We can consider that there are 7 main types of depression according to psychiatry, taking as reference the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-V. This classification, of course, should be understood as flexible and scalable. In many cases, researchers have only a surprising set of features, but they can’t include them all.
One of the main difficulties of psychiatry is related to diagnoses, they have a high degree of subjectivity because they depend on the psychiatrist’s interpretation of the person’s symptoms, a barrier that increases when it is considered that there are several types of depression depending on psychiatry.
- However.
- In this area.
- A diagnosis should always be considered provisional.
- I.
- E.
- It may be subject to additional adjustments.
- It is with the observation and follow-up of each case that a diagnosis can be definitively established.
- In all cases it is important to know what are the main types of depression according to psychiatry.
“The most terrible feeling is the feeling of losing hope. “- Federico García Lorca-
This is the typical form of depression. Depression as a disorder in the strict sense is also the form of this disease that concentrates the greatest number of symptoms, its main characteristic is that the person shows extreme apathy towards the world and life.
In the most severe cases, this type of depression leads to what is called “depressive stupor”. In this case, inactivity almost completely takes over the person to the point where they can stop eating. In some cases, a major depressive disorder is accompanied by delusions.
Dysthymia, also known as persistent depressive disorder, is similar to major depressive disorder, but symptoms are less severe; however, apathy, despair and the feeling of melancholy persist.
All of these symptoms are chronic: they persist for long periods without improvement, sometimes stabilize, but can also become sharper and lead to deeper depression.
This is another type of depression that is present in a significant number of patients and its main feature is that episodes of depression are mixed with episodes of anxiety.
In general, symptoms are moderate. Neither depression leads to extreme states of passivity and renunciation, nor does anxiety cause serious seizures. However, the situation remains in time and sometimes the person thinks it is simply their “way of being”.
It is also known as depression with atypical characteristics. The main difference with major depression is that in atypical depression, mood can improve given the onset of facts that the person values as positive.
In this type of depression it is common to have more appetite and more hours of sleep than normal, those with this type of depression often refer feeling heavy arms and legs and feeling rejected by others.
As the name suggests, the main feature of seasonal affective disorder is that it appears and disappears as seasons change; it is common to start in late autumn or early winter and disappear in spring and summer.
The passage from one stage to another is very sudden, excessive sleepiness appears, a feeling of constant tiredness and carbohydrates become more attractive, in addition, of course, there is melancholy, apathy and degana to perform an activity.
Bipolar disorder is similar to depressive anxiety disorder, but in this case the symptoms are very severe, the stages of depression cause a serious deterioration of mood, with all the necessary characteristics for the diagnosis of major depression.
In turn, episodes of anxiety are classified as manic, basically there is an acceleration of thinking speed, euphoria, hyperactivity, sleep disturbances, irritability and tendency to compulsive actions.
The most characteristic aspect of cyclothymia is mood instability. It is similar to bipolar disorder and anxiety-depression disorder, with two fundamental differences. The first is that the symptoms are milder. The second is that there are also “normal” steps.
Changes in cyclothymia often go unnoticed. The person gets a little sadder or a little more manic, without being too marked. All of this can happen in a very short period of time, a week or less.
As you can see, the main types of depression according to psychiatry have common characteristics, but also differences, so it is difficult to evaluate and diagnose.