Mood Disorders

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Tara “Major Depression” Mood disorders are emotional roller coasters where the person in one moment is enthusiastic and full of energy and in the moment after all of this crashes and the person becomes depressed. This is known as a bipolar disorder, the unipolar depression on the other had is a mood disorder where the person is in a deep depression state with no positive thoughts. Prevalence and prognosis: Depression is one of the most common conditions encountered in medical practice in fact 16% of the U.S population is diagnosed with a depression mood, at heist risks are adolescents with 20%. However it is less common in children, but when it happens it determines the long-terms psychological health of the child. Women have twice the risk as men for developing depression because puberty is a particular high-risk period for females. More then 70% of people with unipolar depression have another disorder such as: substance abuse, anxiety disorder or eating disorder. DSM-IV criteria: For the diagnosis DSM-IV of major depression the criteria are: 1) a person must express five or more of the following symptoms; depressed mood, reduced level of interest in many activities, considerable change in body weight without any intentional diet, change in appetite, sleep difficulties, agitated or slowed behavior, thought of worthless or guilt, cognitive abilities diminished and frequent thoughts of death or suicide, 2) the symptoms need to persist for at least two weeks, 3) the symptoms must interfere with daily functions, 4) a period of mourning or another disorder does not better explain the major symptoms; when a person meets there criteria for the first time, they are said to have experiences in single major depressive episode and w... ... middle of paper ... ...lematic and alcoholic family she was faced with this big life change and she became emotionless to not face her parents. Then Tara’s boyfriend died which increased her previous depressed mood and then she started having suicidal thoughts, which made her feel worthless and like her life did not had a point. Tara started to be hospitalized and she keeps falling deeper in the spiral of depression. However she discovered coping mechanism which work for her like shopping and work and she is positive that one day she can open her own clinic. The treatment used for Tara is ECT which is a very drastic way of treatment because she gets electro convulsions and because of those she looses memory, Tara should be put in a support group which would give her the possibility to face her problems, knowing that she will have people next to her who understand her and don’t judge her.

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