Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment: The Layman’s Guide to Depression

Many people say they feel depressed from things that happen in their lives, but more often than not, they could be referring to the feeling of sadness rather than the medical condition the term refers to.

Depression is a psychological disorder that leaves a person with debilitating feelings of gloom and hopelessness. No matter how hard they may try, a patient with this condition will continue to experience loss of pleasure and disinterest in daily life.

Seems simple enough to understand, right?

Unfortunately, many people still find it challenging to grasp what happens in a depressed person’s mind, making it difficult to understand where they are coming from. This article aims to change that.

Here, you will learn the most important things about depression, including its causes and symptoms and the depression treatments available to help people manage or overcome it.

Sad vs. Depressed: What’s the Difference?

In 2018, the World Health Organization deemed depression one of the most disabling diseases in these modern times.

According to the international health body, the disorder has already affected over 300 million people worldwide. This astounding number doesn’t seem to be apparent even with social media revealing more about people’s lives today.

One of the possible reasons behind this is the grave misuse of the word to describe extreme sadness. However, there’s a big difference between the two.

While sadness is an emotion that most people feel during certain times in their lives, depression is a mental illness that lasts for a long time.

Feeling sad is only natural, especially when faced with certain situations that may cause emotional pain or upset, leading to various degrees of this emotion. The thing that separates the two is that sadness is only temporary and fades after some time, whereas depression doesn’t (at least, not without medical intervention).

When someone is diagnosed with depression, they experience a continuous loss of interest in daily life and constantly feel negative emotions. This condition, often caused by psychological, biological, and social factors, also comes with self-blame, low self-esteem, and a gloomy mood.

Without intervention, depression can impair the patient’s occupational and social functioning and may last for a very long time.

Testing for Depression: A Quick Peek at the Diagnosis

While there isn’t a single test to determine whether a person has depression, healthcare providers can diagnose the condition through careful assessment of the symptoms and a psychological evaluation.

When testing for depression, they would most likely ask about certain aspects of a person’s life, including their:

• Appetite
• Moods
• Activity level
• Sleep pattern
• Thoughts

And since depression can sometimes be associated with other disorders, medical practitioners may also conduct a physical examination and laboratory testing of your blood to find anything that points towards the condition. Some health issues can also trigger symptoms of this mental illness, like vitamin D deficiency or thyroid problems.

There are two main types of depression based on the severity of a patient’s symptoms: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) or Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD).

Patients showing more serious symptoms such as persistent hopelessness, sadness, and worthlessness that they can’t get over may have MDD. These people experience at least five of the following symptoms within two weeks:

• The constant depressive feeling during most of the day
• Loss of interest in almost all their regular activities
• Significant weight gain or weight loss
• Sleeping more than usual or inability to sleep at all
• Reduced movement or thinking capacity
• Decreased energy and fatigue
• Unfounded feelings of guilt and worthlessness
• Indecisiveness or loss of concentration
• Suicidal thoughts and recurring thoughts about death

For PDD, the symptoms are milder. However, this type of depression – also called dysthymia – is chronic, with symptoms lasting for two years or longer. People with PDD also tend to experience:

• Loss of interest in mundane day-to-day activities
• Hopelessness
• Reduced productivity
• Low self-esteem

Depression Treatment: 3 Ways to Manage the Disorder

Depression is a serious condition, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t manageable. There are several ways to do this, but the following three treatments are considered most helpful today:

1.    Medication

This is the most common and most straightforward treatment for depression known today, but its effectiveness also varies from one patient to another. Some people report improvements with certain antidepressant medicines, while others go through trial and error before they find the one that helps improve their sleep, appetite, concentration, and mood.

However, it is important to give the treatment enough time before deciding that it’s not working. Some medications also may have some side effects, but it is important to stick to the doctor’s recommended dosage as there are risks attached to a sudden halt in the treatment.

2.    Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy often consists of two forms of treatment: cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy. Both are found to be effective in helping people with the condition to overcome it.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) works within the premise that people with depression have dysfunctional negative views of themselves, their experiences and the world, and the future — also called the cognitive triad.

People who are clinically depressed see themselves as helpless and incapable, see others as critical or judgmental, and consider the future fruitless and bleak.

Meanwhile, interpersonal therapy (IT) is a treatment performed for a limited time by helping the patient improve the quality of their interpersonal relationships to reduce or potentially eliminate depressive symptoms.

3.    Neurofeedback therapy

Besides medication and psychological help, people with depression also find neurofeedback therapy effective for depression.

Based on a study in the Neuroimage: Clinical journal, people with MDD who recovered from symptoms experienced stronger brain connections even as they think about memories that would normally evoke guilt. This eventually led to increased self-esteem.

The study’s first author, Dr. Roland Zahn, explained that they asked participants to look back to a specific memory that caused them to feel guilty or a sense of resentment towards others. As they do this, researchers had them hooked up to a machine to monitor their brainwaves, which showed changes in how they felt about that particular memory.

Zahn said that they used a thermometer-like marker that showed whether participants are doing well in brain training. The more the meter is filled up, the better they do in the neurofeedback therapy.

Understanding Depression

Despite being quite common, clinical depression remains an illness that requires a more thorough understanding. It is a condition that should be explained more in layman’s terms to help a greater number of people get more in-depth knowledge about it.

AUTHOR BIO

Dr. Upasana Gala is the founder and CEO of Evolve Brain Training, an award-winning neurofeedback-centered institute that focuses on using non-invasive brain training techniques to maximize the brain’s true potential. Earning a doctorate in Neuroscience from the revered Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Gala has spent over a decade trying to unravel the way neurochemical and neurophysiological changes in the brain affect the way we interact with the world. Her goal is to share her knowledge, encourage others to tap into and expand their brain’s capabilities, and dispel any myths surrounding our most complex organ.