Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mood disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally-elevated happiness that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with psychosis, it is called mania; if it is less severe, it is called hypomania. During mania, an individual behaves or feels abnormally energetic, happy or irritable, and they often make impulsive decisions with little regard for the consequences. There is usually also a reduced need for sleep during manic phases. During periods of depression, the individual may experience crying and have a negative outlook on life and poor eye contact with others. The risk of suicide is high; over a period of 20 years, 6% of those with bipolar disorder died by suicide, while 30–40% engaged in self-harm. Other mental health issues, such as anxiety disorders and substance use disorders, are commonly associated with bipolar disorder.
Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial ischemia, or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of plaque (atherosclerosis) in the arteries of the heart. It is the most common of the cardiovascular diseases. Types include stable angina, unstable angina, myocardial infarction, and sudden cardiac death. A common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jaw. Occasionally it may feel like heartburn. Usually symptoms occur with exercise or emotional stress, last less than a few minutes, and improve with rest. Shortness of breath may also occur and sometimes no symptoms are present. In many cases, the first sign is a heart attack. Other complications include heart failure or an abnormal heartbeat.
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Those affected may also occasionally have delusions or hallucinations. Introduced by a group of US clinicians in the mid-1970s, the term was adopted by the American Psychiatric Association for this symptom cluster under mood disorders in the 1980 version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), and has become widely used since.
A mood disorder, also known as an affective disorder, is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where a disturbance in the person's mood is the main underlying feature. The classification is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction. Other CVDs include stroke, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, abnormal heart rhythms, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, carditis, aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, thromboembolic disease, and venous thrombosis.
Depression is a mental state of low mood and aversion to activity. Classified medically as a mental and behavioral disorder, the experience of depression affects a person's thoughts, behavior, motivation, feelings, and sense of well-being. The core symptom of depression is said to be anhedonia, which refers to loss of interest or a loss of feeling of pleasure in certain activities that usually bring joy to people. Depressed mood is a symptom of some mood disorders such as major depressive disorder or dysthymia; it is a normal temporary reaction to life events, such as the loss of a loved one; and it is also a symptom of some physical diseases and a side effect of some drugs and medical treatments. It may feature sadness, difficulty in thinking and concentration and a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping. People experiencing depression may have feelings of dejection, hopelessness and suicidal thoughts. It can either be short term or long term.
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a term used in clinical psychiatry to describe a condition that affects people with major depressive disorder (MDD) who do not respond adequately to a course of appropriate antidepressant medication within a certain time. Typical definitions of TRD vary, and they do not include a resistance to psychological therapies. Inadequate response has traditionally been defined as no clinical response whatsoever. However, many clinicians consider a response inadequate if the person does not achieve full remission of symptoms. People with treatment-resistant depression who do not adequately respond to antidepressant treatment are sometimes referred to as pseudoresistant. Some factors that contribute to inadequate treatment are: early discontinuation of treatment, insufficient dosage of medication, patient noncompliance, misdiagnosis, and concurrent psychiatric disorders. Cases of treatment-resistant depression may also be referred to by which medications people with TRD are resistant to. In TRD adding further treatments such as psychotherapy, lithium, or aripiprazole is weakly supported as of 2019.
Ralph S. Paffenbarger, Jr. was an epidemiologist, ultramarathoner, and professor at both Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard University School of Public Health.
Type D personality, a concept used in the field of medical psychology, is defined as the joint tendency towards negative affectivity and social inhibition. The letter D stands for "distressed".
Subcortical ischemic depression, also known as vascular depression, is a medical condition most commonly seen in older people with major depressive disorder. Subcortical ischemic depression refers to vascular depression specifically due to lesions and restricted blood flow, known as ischemia, in certain parts of the brain. However, the disorder is typically described as vascular depression in the literature.
Depression is a symptom of some physical diseases; a side effect of some drugs and medical treatments; and a symptom of some mood disorders such as major depressive disorder or dysthymia. Physical causes are ruled out with a clinical assessment of depression that measures vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, and hormones. Management of depression may involve a number of different therapies: medications, behavior therapy, psychotherapy, and medical devices.
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck or jaw. Often it occurs in the center or left side of the chest and lasts for more than a few minutes. The discomfort may occasionally feel like heartburn. Other symptoms may include shortness of breath, nausea, feeling faint, a cold sweat or feeling tired. About 30% of people have atypical symptoms. Women more often present without chest pain and instead have neck pain, arm pain or feel tired. Among those over 75 years old, about 5% have had an MI with little or no history of symptoms. An MI may cause heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest.
A depression rating scale is a psychiatric measuring instrument having descriptive words and phrases that indicate the severity of depression for a time period. When used, an observer may make judgements and rate a person at a specified scale level with respect to identified characteristics. Rather than being used to diagnose depression, a depression rating scale may be used to assign a score to a person's behaviour where that score may be used to determine whether that person should be evaluated more thoroughly for a depressive disorder diagnosis. Several rating scales are used for this purpose.
Late-life depression refers to a major depressive episode occurring for the first time in an older person. The term can also include depression that develops in an older person who suffered from the illness earlier in life. Concurrent medical problems and lower functional expectations of elderly patients often obscure the degree of impairment. Typically, elderly patients with depression do not report depressed mood, but instead present with less specific symptoms such as insomnia, anorexia, and fatigue. Elderly persons sometimes dismiss less severe depression as an acceptable response to life stress or a normal part of aging.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions.
Depression, one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders, is being diagnosed in increasing numbers in various segments of the population worldwide. Depression in the United States alone affects 17.6 million Americans each year or 1 in 6 people. Depressed patients are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and suicide. Within the next twenty years depression is expected to become the second leading cause of disability worldwide and the leading cause in high-income nations, including the United States. In approximately 75% of suicides, the individuals had seen a physician within the prior year before their death, 45–66% within the prior month. About a third of those who died by suicide had contact with mental health services in the prior year, a fifth within the preceding month.
Social stress is stress that stems from one's relationships with others and from the social environment in general. Based on the appraisal theory of emotion, stress arises when a person evaluates a situation as personally relevant and perceives that they do not have the resources to cope or handle the specific situation. The activation of social stress does not necessarily have to occur linked to a specific event, the mere idea that the event may occur could trigger it. This means that any element that takes a subject out of their personal and intimate environment could become a stressful experience. Situation that makes them socially incompetent individuals.
The epidemiology of depression has been studied across the world. Depression is a major cause of morbidity worldwide, as the epidemiology has shown. Lifetime prevalence estimates vary widely, from 3% in Japan to 17% in India. Epidemiological data shows higher rates of depression in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and U.S.A than in other countries. Among the 10 countries studied, the number of people who would experience depression during their lives falls within an 8–12% range in most of them.
Karina W. Davidson is senior vice president of research, dean of academic affairs, and head of the center focused on behavioral and cardiovascular health research at Northwell Health She was previously vice-dean of organizational effectiveness and executive director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center. She was also Chief Academic Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
The timing hypothesis, gap hypothesis, or critical window hypothesisfor menopausal hormone therapy is a scientific theory that the benefits and risks of menopausal hormone therapy vary depending on the amount of time a woman has been in menopause upon initiation of treatment. More specifically, it is thought that hormone therapy may be protective against coronary heart disease in women who initiate it in early menopause but may be harmful in women who start it in late menopause. The timing hypothesis may also extend to risks of breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease with hormone therapy. It is thought that the increase in breast cancer risk may be greater in women who start hormone therapy in early menopause but may be lower or that even decreased risk of breast cancer may occur in women who start in late menopause. The influence of hormone therapy on depressive symptoms may additionally be influenced by menopausal stage, with significant benefit seen in perimenopausal women but not in postmenopausal women. The timing hypothesis is potentially able to resolve conflicting findings between large observational studies and randomized controlled trials on long-term health outcomes with menopausal hormone therapy.
