Overview
During our lifetime, we often have to face challenging life events and decisions. Fortunately, most of these situations are benign and don’t affect our cognition. Sometimes, when stress and anxiety buildup, we tend to express short-lived feelings of sadness.
However, patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) deal with prolonged feelings of extreme sadness and social isolation.
This condition is severe, and psychiatric management is of the essence.
This article will focus on the prevalence and symptoms of MDD to get a better understanding of this condition.
Prevalence of MDD
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 17.3 million adults in the United States had at least one episode of major depressive disorder.
Moreover, MDD tends to occur more in women than men with a ratio of 2:1, and the most predisposed age group falls between 18-25 years old.
International statistics report more terrifying numbers! According to the World Health Organization (WHO), MDD-related deaths exceed 800,000 cases every year!
WHO describes depression as “a leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.”
Overall, major depressive disorder is the most common mental disorder worldwide with high prevalence, morbidity, and mortality.
Symptoms of MDD
Similar to other psychiatric disorders, depression presents with a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms that vary between patients.
Here are the most commonly reported symptoms:
Intense feelings of sadness
This is not your usual days of feeling “bumped down”; the feelings of sadness that a patient with MDD experiences are extremely intense that he/she cannot think about anything else.
This can lead patients to isolate themselves, which exacerbates their condition even further.
Loss of interest
Also known as anhedonia, which is Latin for complete loss of interest. Patients who used to enjoy a certain food, TV show, or any other hobby, find themselves completely unaffected by these activities anymore.
This effect is so powerful that even if patients try to force themselves into practicing some activity, they will realize that it doesn’t make them feel anything.
Sleep disturbances
Sleep disturbance is a key feature of a major depressive episode, and it can present as either:
- Hypersomnia (excessive sleep)
- Insomnia (lack of sleep)
The more common sleep disorder in depressive patients is insomnia, which is particularly dangerous since suicide rates are the highest during the early morning hours.
That is typically when patients wake up and have trouble falling asleep again.
Feeling guilty
Constant guilt is another torturing symptom of depression that makes patients think about past events and how they could’ve done things differently. Eventually, they start to blame themselves for everything, even if it’s not a consequence of their direct action.
Psychiatrists refer to this as mental pain, which is thought to be more severe than physical pain.
Lethargy
Lethargy is a medical term that means extreme tiredness.
When combined with anhedonia, these two symptoms create the perfect environment for total isolation.
Concentration issues
Distractability and lack of concentration can also be seen in patients with depression.
Appetite trouble
One of the classic presentations of MDD is the considerable weight loss patients experience. This is mainly due to diminished appetite and anhedonia.
Diminished psychomotor activity
Patients with advanced symptoms of MDD will become mentally and physically slow, which means answering questions after taking some time to think about them, as well as decreased physical activity.
In fact, this effect is so powerful that psychiatrists think it’s the only obstacle that stops patients from committing suicide since they cannot even move to commit the act!
Suicidal thoughts
A significant number of patients with depression have suicidal thoughts that peak during the early morning.
Takeaway message
Technically speaking, MDD is not inherently life-threatening; however, physicians promptly treat this condition to alleviate patients’ suffering and reduce the risk of suicide.
Hopefully, you have a better understanding of depression and its clinical presentation, but if you still have any queries, feel free to ask in the comment section below.
For those who are interested in scheduling online videoconferencing appointments to manage their mental conditions, you can do so by clicking on this link.