Lesson 1: Different Types of Depression
In this lesson, we will be introduced to different types and subtypes of depression such as Atypical, Dysthymia, SAD, and Bipolar. We will also learn how depression affects special populations, including women, men, kids, and the elderly.
Introduction
Clinical depression is often referred to as unipolar depression to distinguish it from bipolar or manic depression, but the term is grossly inaccurate, implying a uniformity to an illness that in reality wears many coats. Athanasios Koukopoulos MD of the University of Rome has observed, for instance, that agitated depression has been relegated to a symptom of depression in the DSM-IV ("psychomotor agitation or retardation"), meaning "major depressive episodes with or without agitation are treated in the same way, and the result is disastrous in many cases of agitated depression."
Then there are psychotic depressions, atypical depressions, excited and anxious depressions, melancholic depressions, nonmelancholic depressions, and dysphoric moods. An article in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry by Herman Van Praag of Maastricht University has proposed there be a new subtype of depression called anxiety/aggression-driven depression. Eventually, we may discover that your particular brand of depression is genetically different from the person next to you in your support group, whose depression, in turn, is a different animal from the one sitting alongside.
Andrew Solomon in “The Noonday Demon” put it this way: “No two people have the same depression. Like snowflakes, depressions are always unique, each based on the same essential principles, but each boasting an irreproducibly complex shape.”
The illness is further complicated by the people who fall victim. Women, who experience different environmental and biological stresses than men, suffer depression in twice the numbers. Depressed kids are more likely to be aggressive while many mistakenly believe depression is a normal part of aging. Meanwhile, poverty remains the most reliable predictor of depression. Following is a brief traverse of the different types of depression and how the illness affects different populations:
