Typical Symptoms of Depression

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Depression is a serious disease that is characterized by feeling of sadness, hopelessness, guilt, and worthlessness. Typical symptoms of depression include loss of pleasure in everyday activities, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, weight loss or weight gain, and persistent feelings of sadness or emptiness (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2011). Unfortunately, depression is a common problem in today’s world. In recent years, depression has been termed a major public health concern in the United States. This is partially due to the lack of recognition and treatment of depression in many people. An additional problem is that despite treatment, many people relapse and sink back into their depression. Depression is the leading cause of disability for both men and women (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012). According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of disease burden for women (WHO, 2012). While depression is a serious disease, it is treatable.
Depression is particularly a problem for women as it is more prevalent in women than men; this may be due to hormonal and psychosocial factors that women experience (NIMH, 2011). The onset of depression often occurs during a woman’s reproductive years and as a result it is of particular importance in the field of Obstetrics & Gynecology (Marcus & Heringhausen, 2009). Due to an increase in knowledge, there has been a focus on perinatal depression or depression that occurs during pregnancy or within twelve months of giving birth. Now that the prevalence of depression during and after pregnancy has been established, they has been a focus on how to treat depression during pregnancy. Antidepressant medication is a common treatment for depression; howev...

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... observed in women during their reproductive years, specifically between the ages of 20 and 40 years old (Marcus & Heringhausen, 2009; Weissman & Olfson, 1995). When looking specifically at depression during pregnancy, studies have shown that between 10% and 16% of pregnant women meet the criteria for MDD and up to 20% experience depressive symptoms (Marcus & Heringhausen, 2009; Gotlib et al., 1989; Burt & Stein, 2002). The DSM-IV-TR does not recognize postpartum depression as a separate disorder, rather it is a “specifier” under major depressive disorder (DSM–IV–TR, 2000). For a patient to be diagnosed with “postpartum depression” they must meet the criteria for both major depressive disorder and the postpartum depression specifier (DSM–IV–TR, 2000). Lastly, the specifier of postpartum depression applies if the onset of depression is within four weeks of delivery.

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