What is depression? She, in contrast to the accepted in everyday life, is a mental illness, accompanied by a number of complaints.
Stable depressed mood, inhibition of action and thinking, loss of interest in the environment, as well as a variety of physical symptoms such as insomnia, impaired or loss of appetite, up to the onset of painful conditions, are all possible signs of depression.
Most people with depression develop suicidal thoughts sooner or later, and as a result, 10 to 15% commit suicide.
Depressive states recur annually. The peak of the disease occurs in the age group 30-40 years old. The probability of developing depression in a lifetime is 7-18%, while the female population is twice as likely to develop this disorder as men.
Many of the sick do not go to the doctor. Some are due to ignorance, others from a sense of shame or attempts at repression, fear of admitting that they have a disease. However, often, due to their various symptoms, depression is not detected by doctors either, since not everyone equally has sufficient psychiatric experience to quickly recognize the disease.
Being diagnosed quickly and on time makes the patient's position far from hopeless. In recent decades, not so little has been done for therapy, as a result, more than 80% of cases can be provided with effective long-term care. It is all the more important that educational and informational work is carried out, revealing the essence of the disease, since it can catch everyone, regardless of age, gender or social status.
Unipolar depression is spoken of when the depressive phases are not yet manic in nature. Should there be such signs as depression, apathy, lack of interest in what is happening, as well as phases of excessively elevated mood with a tendency to distance (mania), then we are talking about bipolar depression. In about 20% of patients, the disease is bipolar.
In recent years, there have been indications that bipolar disorders with mild manic symptoms may go unrecognized. Manias in their pure form without a depressive phase are rare and account for about 5%.
