Psychological depression

Depression is one the most popular psychological concepts just like stress and resilience, amongst others. This popularity has carried an ambiguous and probably incorrect use of it, with diverse related problems arising. It has been conceived as a thought disorder and as a “mood disorder”; as well, the controversy of its definition as an “emotion” (specifically a sadness synonym) or as a pathological state, can be included.

Depression is a mood disorder which prevents individuals from leading a normal life, at work socially or within their family.

Depression is probably the most common psychiatric complaint and has been described by physicians since before the time of ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who called it melancholia. The course of the disorder is extremely variable from person to person; it may be mild or severe, acute or chronic.

Melancholia is a kind of depression with the most common symptoms of evident mental disorder, slimness, lack of enjoyment, feeling guilty and having no appetite. In modern medicine, the word “melancholia” only refers to mental and affective symptoms of depression.

There are also painful feelings, bad humor, anguish and panic attacks, performance decay of various psychic and cognitive functions, tendency to isolation, demotivation, apathy, abulia, difficulty to enjoy, hopelessness, motor inhibition, hypotonia and negative thoughts, including possible delusions in cases of serious severity.
Psychological depression