Chief Complaint
The chief complaint presented by depressed patients often pints immediately to the diagnosis of depression; although it sometimes suggest a physical disturbance.
Skillful questioning can generally determine whether the basic symptomatology is present.
The chief complaint may take a variety of forms:
*an unpleasant emotional state
*a changed attitude toward life
*somatic symptoms of a specifically depressive nature
*somatic symptoms not typical of depression
Although depression is generally considered an affective disorder, it should be emphasized that a subjective change on mood is not reported by all depressed patients.
As in many other disorders, the absence of a significant clinical feature does not rule out the diagnosis of that disorder. Only 53 percent of the mildly depressed patients acknowledges feeling sad or unhappy.
Chief Complaint
Depression commonly refers to a relatively transitory, negative mood experienced by human. The terms depression or depressed are used in both the ordinary, non-clinical sense and to refer specifically to pathology, especially when the mood of depression has reached a level of severity and/or duration that warrants a clinical diagnosis.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
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