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Melancholic depression

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Melancholic Depression, or 'depression with melancholic features' is a subtype of depression characterized by the inability to find pleasure in positive things combined with physical agitation, insomnia, or decreased appetite. Roughly 10% of people with depression suffer from Melancholic Depression.

Diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV-TR)Edit

The DSM-IV-TR, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, defines Depression with Melancholic Features as a subtype of depression characterized by:

A. At least one of the following:
  1. loss of pleasure in all, or almost all, activities
  2. lack of mood reactivity to usually pleasurable stimuli (can't feel much better, even when something good happens)
B. At least three of the following:
  1. distinct quality of depressed mood (i.e., the depressed mood is experienced as distinctly different from the kind of feeling experienced after the death of a loved one)
  2. depression is regularly worse in the morning
  3. early morning awakening (at least 2 hours before usual time of awakening)
  4. marked psychomotor retardation or agitation
  5. significant anorexia or weight loss
  6. excessive or inappropriate guilt

See also Edit


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