Analysis of the Spectrum of Depression

2812 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Causes and effects of depression

Analysis of the Spectrum of Depression Depression has many degrees of severity from a passing feeling to a serious illness, which destroys lives and relationships. Major depressive disorder is the most severe form of depression. It is extreme and persistent, rendering the patient inconsolable and helpless (1). Depressed patients often cannot continue working and have difficulty dealing with family and friends. Other symptoms of major depression are deep despair, misery, irritability, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, change in eating and sleeping habits, fatigue and inability to concentrate. Other mental illnesses, such as anxiety and alcoholism are also associated with major depression (2). While serious depressive episodes are important to our understanding of mental health, chronic depression is terribly widespread and often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Dysthymia is a disorder which has similar, but milder and much longer lasting, symptoms to depression (3). By understanding the characteristics of dysthymia, health professionals can identify a chronic mental illness before it manifests into more serious psychological problems, such as severe depression. Dysthymia is also an interesting disorder from the neurobiological perspective because it is often difficult to discern from other personality disorders, such as a depressed or gloomy personality. This paper explores depression and dysthymia, their symptoms and therapies. In addition, personalities which are depressed will be analyzed and compared to depression and dysthymia. Do all three afflictions stem from the same genetic or environmental causes, and mechanistic origins? Are they all responsive to the same treatment? This comparison will address the difficulty in dis... ... middle of paper ... ...l and emotional signals can be influenced at several different levels in the brain, by a myriad of chemicals. The sole cause of depression seems to be the simultaneous breakdown of neurochemical pathways across the nervous systems. It is true that treating depression in all of its forms is much easier today with the advent of new antidepressants, but these drugs are correcting a neurochemical imbalance which is not specific to depression. There may exist and someday be discovered a particular mood regulation flaw which is responsible for depression, but given the research presented today, I would say there is not. Sources Cited: 1) Elliott, Laura. "Help for Your Head, " Washingtonian, April 1998, p.76 2) http://www.mentalhealth.com/p20-grp.html 3) http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-md04.html 4) http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n03/noticias/freios_i.htm

Show More
Related

  • Race Relations in Brazil

    2668 Words  | 6 Pages

    The purpose of this paper is to recognize, study and analyze the race relations in Brazil. Race relations are relations between two groups of different races; it is how these two different races connect to each other in their environment. Since Brazil is racially diverse, this study is focused on how Brazilians relate to each other. Throughout the essay, it will become clear that there exists a conflict between two race groups. Afro-Brazilians and White-Brazilians are not connected and though these two groups converse with each other, discrimination still lies within the society. This discrimination has created inequality within the society for Afro-Brazilians. Thus, this paper will not only focus on racism and discrimination that Afro-Brazilians experience because of White-Brazilian, but also on the history of Brazil, the types if discrimination that Afro-Brazilian must endure today and how the media creates discrimination.

    Read More

  • The Beck Depression Inventory-II

    1078 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is the latest version of one of the most extensively used assessments of depression that utilizes a self-report method to measure depression severity in individuals aged thirteen and older (Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996). The BDI-II proves to be an effective measure of depression as evidenced by its prevalent use in both clinical and counseling settings, as well as its use in studies of psychotherapy and antidepressant treatment (Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996). Even though the BDI-II is meant to be administered individually, the test administration time is only 5 to 10 minutes and Beck, Steer & Brown (1996) remark that the interpretive guidelines presented in the test manual are straightforward, making the 21 item Likert-type measure an enticing option to measure depression in appropriate educational settings. However it is important to remember that even though the BDI-II may be easy to administer and interpret, doing so should be left to highly trained individuals who plan to use the results in correlation with other assessments and client specific data when diagnosing a client with depression. An additional consideration is the response bias that can occur in any self-report instrument; Beck, Steer & Brown (1996, pg. 1) posit that clinicians are often “faced with clients who alter their presentation to forward a personal agenda that may not be shared.” This serves as an additional reminder that self-report assessments should not be the only assessment used in the diagnoses process.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Birth Order on the Personality of an Individual

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many things that can alter the personality of an individual; some of these are voluntarily inflicted, while others are uncontrollable. Among the uncontrollable altercations, birth order is perhaps the largest influence on a person's disposition. Personality is influenced by the "place" a person has in their family as well as the family situation. It is important whether an individual is an only child, first born, second born, third born, a boy among girls, or a girl among boys, and so on.

    Read More

  • Primed Social Roles on Gender Differences in Conformity

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Buss and Reeve. (2003). Evolutionary Psychology and Development Dynamics: Comment on Lickliter and Honeycutt. Psychological Bulletin, 129(6), 848-853.

    Read More

  • Prozac

    1877 Words  | 4 Pages

    Depression can result from a physical disease, a mental illness, or it can be a recurring reaction of the body. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, major depressive illnesses are often the result of imbalances in neurotransmitters in the brain. It is these critical chemicals that send messages between nerve fibers and control mood (Creamer, 3). Older anti-depressants worked on three different neurotransmitters, serotonin, norepinepherine, and dopamine. However, it has been found that serotonin is the specific chemical in the brain that controls moods. Its job is to carry an impulse from one nerve fiber to the next. Serotonin is released by the nerve into the space between nerve fib...

    Read More

  • Major Depressive Disorder

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    The exact causes of depression seem to differ immensely, but there are some who believe that it maybe caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, or that it may even be hereditary. Still there are others who believe that it is a combination of social, biological, emotional, psychological, and economical influences that may cause someone who has no family history of depression to develop even a mild case of depression.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Birth Order on Personality

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    It has been observed across many studies that members of each rank—oldest, middle, youngest or single children—tend to have similar personalities as members of the same rank (Ernst & Angst, 13-16). It can be presumed that birth order will have an effect on all aspects of life, specifically interpersonal relationships.

    Read More

  • Brazil Culture Essay

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Brazilian culture is one of the world’s most wide ranged and diverse. This is a result due to it being a melting pot of nationalities, as a result of centuries of European domination as well as slavery, which brought large groups of African migrants across Brazil’s borders to live in and influence the local cultures with their ancient customs and ideas. The European settlers also brought ideas, innovations and belief systems with them, molding the local societies remarkably. All of these varying influences have made the modern-day Brazilian culture is unique and very elaborate (Meyer, 2010).

    Read More

  • Children and Violence: An American Media Controversy

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    As censorship of the American media has broken down over the years, the amount of violence allowed to be shown in movies, on television, and in video games has skyrocketed. From coast to coast in our nation, this saturation of hostility in our media has caused many contentious debates between scholars, parents, students and government officials alike. In this controversy, the central argument revolves around the effects violent media has on our society. The question that most researchers strive to answer is this: does watching or participating in violent media cause violent or other harmful behaviors? There are those who would say yes, it does promote destructive behavior in real life. On the other hand, there are those who argue no, violent media is simply a reflection of what is already occurring in our society.

    Read More

  • Birth Order

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dating all the way back to the late 1800’s, Birth order has been studied thoroughly. An incredible amount of psychologist and doctors have studied how birth order, or a person’s rank by age among his or her siblings, can affect a child’s personality. Researchers find it difficult to find conclusions due to the fact that it is hard to establish a control group that has controlled variables. Experts say that “different social status, location of the family, and size of the family can create confusion and affect the quality of conclusions” (Hartshone par. 2).

    Read More

  • Media And Violence: The Causes Of Violence In The Media

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    American society emphasizes violence in the media. Television shows, movies, and video games, are all outlets researchers often place blame when considering the effects media has on violent behavior. Television shows, movies, and video games frequently revolve around violent plots, characters die in gruesome ways, and violence against others is common place. “Social learning is the branch of behavior theory most relevant to criminology. Social learning theorist, most notably Albert Bandura, argue that people are not actually born with the ability to act violently, but that they learned to be aggressive through their life experiences.” (PG. 161)

    Read More

  • How Does Depression Affect The Brain?

    145 Words  | 1 Pages

    The human brain controls everything that goes on within the body, but there are many functions of the brain that remain mysterious. Depression is one major disease that remained unexplainable for a period of time. Although the mechanism for this disease is basically unknown, technology has increased within the last decade to help better understand this disorder. It is one of the top mental diseases in the United States affecting overall 6.7 percent of adults and 2.7 percent of children ages 8-15. Depression is caused by the lack of emotional stimuli, which are caused by neurotransmitters. The limbic system contains parts of the brain that control the neurons that output emotional response: the hypothalamus, hippocampus, thalamus, and amygdala.

    Read More

  • Birth Order

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Does being the eldest child make people highly intellectual, people pleasing, perfectionists? Are the middle children always impatiently competing for parental attention by rebelling against the rules? Are all last-born children the spoiled, selfish, favorites? Birth order, a highly controversial topic, is defined as the dynamics of an individual’s place in the family compared to that of their siblings. Birth order has been in a fiery discussion for over one hundred years; some say it’s the very foundation of each one of our personalities, while others claim that the margin of error is just too wide for these coincidental patterns to bear any meaning.

    Read More

  • Facebook's Changing Privacy Policies

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Facebook had originally advocated for privacy, claiming that they wanted as much information as possible private, in order for people to share more information (Kirkpatrick, 2009). However, in the past year or so, Facebook has changed its privacy policies, making information more public, and making it impossible to change some of that into more private information. However Mark Zuckerberg has made a U-turn regarding privacy, claiming that people now want to share more information and that society is changing and these new policies are a reflection of that change (Kirkpatrick, 2010). However given that Facebook has so many users, and it has such an impact on our society, they are more than mere bystanders, they are not reflecting a social change but rather imposing it (Kirkpatrick , 2009). This privacy change affects many since their information is now available to anyone who wants it as opposed to just a small circle of trusted friends, this leaves a window open for people like stalkers (Singel, 2009) who can find out all about a person, or to theft, since a lot of a person’s personal information can be accessed, personalized scams would be easier to pull off.

    Read More

  • Birth Order And Personality Essay

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    When an infant is born determines in large part the emotions of his or her parents and relatives. Moreover, whether or not the infant is the first child, has older siblings, or is the youngest child to be born to the family impacts the environment he or she is to grow up in. These three different scenarios are descriptive of birth order. A persons rank by age among his or her siblings is called birth order (Sulloway, 2001). Birth order thus determines the environment into which a child is born and the responsive and adaptive responses of the child. This cycle of interaction extends all the way up to adulthood (Stewart, Stewart, & Campbell, 2001). Thus, one can reasonably infer that birth order determines the relatively constant pattern of personality observed in individuals. Birth order therefore significantly affects the personality of the individual.

    Read More

More about Analysis of the Spectrum of Depression

Open Document