Symptomatology of DepressionThere has been remarkable consistency in the descriptions of depression since ancient times.
The core sings and symptoms such as low mood, pessimism, self-criticism and retardation or agitation seem to have been universally accepted.
Other signs and symptoms that have been regarded as intrinsic to the depressive syndrome include autonomic symptoms, constipation, difficulty in concentrating, slow thinking and anxiety.
In 1953, Campbell listed 29 medical manifestations of autonomic disturbance, among which the most common in manic depressives were hot flashes, tachycardia, dyspnea, weakness, head pains, coldness and numbness of the extremities, frontal headaches and dizziness.
Vey few systematic studies have been designed to delineate the characteristics sign and symptoms of depression.
Among symptoms that the were endorsed significantly are often by those in the psychiatric group were anorexia sleep disturbance, low mood, suicidal thoughts, crying, irritability, fear for losing the mind, poor concentration and delusions.
Campbell reported a high frequency of medical symptoms, generally attributed to autonomic imbalance, among manic depresses.
Cassidy’s study, however found that most of these medical symptoms occurred at least as frequently among the medically ill patients as among the manic depressive patients.
Moreover, many of these symptoms were found in a group of healthy control patients. Headaches, for instances, were reported by 49 percent of the manic depressive patients, 36 percent of the medically sock controls and 25 percent of the healthy controls.
When the symptoms of manic depressives, anxiety neurotics an hysteria patients were compared, it was found that autonomic symptoms occurred at least as frequently in the latter two groups as they did in the manic depressive group.
Symptomatology of Depression
