Unipolar depression (Clinical depression)

Alexandra the great, Sir Issac Newton, William Blake, Charles Dicken, Emily Dickenson, Sigmund freud, Marilyn Monroe, George Washington US President, Michelangelo are few of the famous personalities who have faced unipolar depressiondefine or manic depression in their lives.

Unipolar depression is also known as major depression, major depressive disorder, or clinical depression. It is a phase in which a person has extreme mood that is feel sad all of the time, have feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness, there is change in sleeping pattern, either sleep too much or too less accompanied by thoughts.

A person usually remains aloof but than there are also people who show they are happy from outside but deep inside there heart they are depressed, sad that too "without any reason". They experience fatigue, loss interest in activities which they really liked doing before like sex, think they are burden on their families.

One can say it’s a state of total despair where an individual doesn’t have hope of things changing in his life and thus are always frustrated or gets irritated easily.

A person is said to have major depressiondefine when he or she is having at least five symptoms of depression pertaining for two weeks.

Unipolar depression is when an individual is on 'one pole' that is 'depression' only and is not shifting like in bipolar disorder between mania and depression.

Causes

Unipolar depression was previously thought to be caused due to chemical imbalance in the neurotransmitter in the brain. But after that many other causes such as heredity, genetics or some mishappening in the life of a person came to light which can also attribute to the depression.

Depression tend to run in families and anybody who has close relatives suffering from depression are more at risk of getting this illness.

It is said to affect at least 16% of the population around the world. As much as 18 million Americans are suffering from this disorder each year. Women are more susceptible to depression than the male population. Age groups 25 to 44 are more prone and above 65 are least prone to the unipolar depression.

The other FACT about depression is that it can affect anybody at any point in life.

Few other factors apart from genetics, family history are:

# Lack of sunlight during winters could make an individual gloomy and sad

# Sudden death or loss of somebody whom he loved

# Too much stress due to work

# Social conditions like poverty, unemployment, working for peanuts etc

# Sexual abuse or childhood abuse cans also lead to depression

# Lack of attention at home

# Abusing alcohol or drugs

# Postpartum illness- ‘Blues’ women feels after giving birth to baby.

# Wrong thinking pattern of an individual like people with low self esteem

# If an individual is suffering from long term illness or chronic illness than its but natural for him to feel depressed.

# Due to change in hormonesdefine women is more susceptible to depression

# Married life – If unhappy or divorced or some other problem in married life

Symptoms

• Either sleep too much or not sleep at all

• Remain tired most of the time

• Cant take decision himself

• Suicidal thoughts

• Feelings of worthless, hopelessness and guilt

• Loss interest in activities they previously enjoyed

• Change in appetite

• Irritable most of the time

• Decrease in self esteem

• In severe case they may have hallucination (perceiving something which is not there in reality) or delusion (a false belief)

• They may have physical ailments like chronic pain to which there is no specific reason and it does respond to treatment.

• Fear of being left by people whom they love

It may be noted that if more than five of these symptoms occur in an individual for more than two weeks and it hampers with their day to day life functioning, treatment must be sought.

There are various tests or inventories which can help in diagnosing the depression. The psychiatrist must check whether the depressive symptoms are due to medication that the individual is taking or he is really depressed.

Treatments?

Depression is a normal phase in life. One can be depressed when they have failed in exams, or had a bad day at work or due to stress but it does go away in time but the real problem is when it persists for longer duration say more than two weeks. It is at this point that treatment should be sought otherwise an individual can be depressed for days, weeks, months or even years and if left untreated than the person can end up taking his life.

Around 15% of the unipolar depression patients can take up their lives. One can get help from the psychiatrist, mental health professional, counselor, family members, community groups, psychologists etc.

The depression can be treated via medication, psychotherapy or ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) .

Medication along with the psychotherapy is said to give effective results. New antidepressant drugs are there which are tested by the doctors either alone or in combination to check which one suits the patient such as - elective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the tricyclics, and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).

The latest studies have found that some antidepressant drugs do increase the suicidal tendency in children and adolescents. The fact that cane to light is that those individual who are on antidepressant attempt more suicide but the ‘complete suicide’ rate is ‘low.’

Doctors team up antidepressant with the psychotherapy which means to ‘talk therapy’ and it has been seen that this combination gives good results.

ECT or electroshock therapy is a treatment in which electric current is passed into the brain for a short period to cause seizure. It is given to people who are in severe depression or have more suicidal tendency so that helps in uplifting the mood. This treatment is used when nothing else works.

A person should never ever stop taking medication or decrease the dosage without consulting the doctor or he could have relapse. Any new medication or taking new medicine without asking doctor is strict no-no. The alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs should not be taken while getting treatment for unipolar depression as you never know with which you can get side effects.

Preventive methods

# Have a healthy diet

# Exercise regularly

# Do meditation

# Avoid smoking, drinking or having illegal drugs

# Good sleep habits should be maintained

# Develop coping strategy for dealing stress

Don’t shy away to seek help from doctor in times of grief, stress or low mood.