Major depression is categorized as clinical depression. It is also termed as unipolar depression and major depressive disorder. Major depression is generally found to occur in people between the ages of 25 and 44, though it can not be generalized for certain. This depression may last for a period of six to nine months.

The episodic behavior of depression grows in intensity as the disorder progresses into severe depression. There will be great disparity in thought and action. There will be complete loss of personal care and well being which may result in hygiene and nutritional problems. The basic hygiene inadequacy will cause other health problems. The patient may experience delusions and hallucinations. It is called psychotic depression.

Anxiety and stress are precursors to depression. These manifest in irritation, apprehension, uneasiness, tachycardia, nausea, fainting, breathlessness etc. Extended prevalence of anxiety may cause day-to-day life difficult to manage.

As per standard norms, major depressive disorder can not be considered to have occurred due to: bodily disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse, bereavement, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia etc.

Mood Symptoms of Major Depression

Extreme mood depression: In patients, it is generally due to a sense of loss which, in major depressive disorder, lasts for at least two weeks

Marked effect on functional characteristic

Debilitating physical symptoms: include such symptoms as disturbed sleep patterns, loss of appetite, weight loss, decreasing energy levels etc.

Deteriorating psychological symptoms: They include symptoms such as general disinterestedness, gloomy fixation of self-irrelevance, suicidal contemplations, etc.

Extreme lack of pleasure mood: The lack of interest and pleasure in this disorder is a decreased ability to sense pleasure which, in its most severe form, is called anhedonia.

Lack of any motivation: It can be quite inflictive

Extreme irritability: Irritable depressed persons often will distance themselves from their loved ones with their cantankerous mood and constant censures.

Physical symptoms of Major Depression

Abnormal dietary activity: In most cases, patients of major depression experience loss of appetite. The attendant weight loss will occur. But in some patients, the opposite was observed. They indulged in excessive eating and they gained in weight. Loss or gain, changes in weight are found to be substantial.

Unusual sleeping habits: Patients of this disorder sometimes find it difficult to fall asleep. Frequent disturbances during sleep period or frequent early awakenings may occur. The opposite can also be true in some minority of depressed people.

Extreme fatigue or lack of energy: Intense fatigue and lack of energy usually debilitate a patient and the patient will lose all bodily resources to fight the disorder.

Anxiety or Retardation: Psychomotor retardation (a real physical retardation and slowing of speech, movement and thinking) or psychomotor agitation (noticeable pacing and physical agitation) are frequently present in severe major depressive disorder.

The Cognitive Symptoms of Major Depression

Abnormal self-criticism or misplaced remorse : This disorder usually causes a significant reduction in one’s self-respect and self-belief with enhanced thoughts of negativity, despair, and vulnerability. In acute cases, the patient may sense extreme and irrational remorse. The ‘negativity ‘feeling in a patient caused by depression can become more dangerous as it can eventually lead to highly self-inflicting or suicidal behavior.

Unusual reduction in attentiveness or vacillation: Low concentration is usually an early symptom of this disorder. The patient rapidly becomes mentally exhausted when told to read, learn, or unravel intricate problems. Significant memory loss often is associated with this disorder. As the situation deteriorates, this memory loss can be easily misunderstood for early senility (dementia).

Excessive gloomy thoughts of death or suicide: The symptoms are related to patient’s suicidal behavior in depressed state. They seem to lose all hope of living.

A person is known as psychotic who is out of sync with reality. Patients are prone to extreme mood changes. They are highly illogical and irrational in their behavior. They neglect hygiene and are unaware of their health condition.

There is a strong linkage between major depression and genetic disorder. People whose parents have a history of the disorder have a greater chance of getting this disorder. Families who have major depressive disorder have an increased risk of developing Alcoholism and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The concordance for major depression in monozygotic twins is substantially higher than it is in dizygotic twins.

The symptoms of depression cause suffering or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of operation.