Manic depression The social navigation hypothesis emphasizes that an individual can bee tightly ensnared in an overly restrictive matrix of social exchange contracts, and that this situation sometimes necessitates a radical contractual upheaval that is beyond conventional methods of negotiation. Menopause and depression
The social, psychological and biological etiology of depression is still being actively investigated. Laboratory tests can provide medical data for diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, but currently not for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Insulin shock therapy is an old and largely abandoned treatment of severe depressions, psychoses, catatonic states, and other mental disorders. In the field of psychiatry, the word depression can also have this meaning of low mood but more specifically refers to a mental illness when it has reached a severity and duration to warrant a diagnosis, whether there is an obvious situational cause or not; see Clinical depression. Depression, or a depressed mood, may in everyday English refer to a state of melancholia, unhappiness or sadness, or to a relatively minor downturn in mood that may last only a few hours or days. Manic depression. Postpartum depression
Meditation is increasingly seen as a useful treatment for some cases of depression. The current professional opinion on meditation is that it represents at least a plementary method of treating depression, a view that has been endorsed by the Mayo Clinic. Since the late 1990s, much research has been carried out to determine how meditation affects the brain (see the main article on meditation). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a family of antidepressant considered to be the current standard of drug treatment. For example, it is possible to refer to "depressed thyroid function" or to a depression of blood flow in a particular area. External affective signs of depressed mood also include a physical hunching or stooping, or putting the head in the hands, and an appearance of being physically subdued, and flatness of speech. Manic depression. On the other hand, sorrow and regret perhaps occur much more monly in literature, and tragedy, where the audience or readers may share the sadness or despair of the characters, is seen as one of the greatest of art forms and perhaps the most profound. Many people identify the feeling of being depressed as "being blue", "feeling sad for no reason", or "having no motivation to do anything". "The catecholamine hypothesis of affective disorders: a review of supporting evidence". Sometimes the depressed mood may relate more to internal processes or even be triggered by them. |
