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Depression and Antidepressants

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Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging
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Definition

Depression is one of the first psychiatric disorders described by physicians. Over the years, the concept of depression has broadened, and a major question now is whether this broader definition encompasses one illness or several, each with a different biological and psychological etiology (Ebersole and Hess 2017). The Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries, and Causes of Death (ICD-11) (World Health Organization 2018) defines depression as having at least five of the following symptoms present during the same 2-week period: (1) depressed mood; (2) markedly diminished interest or pleasure in almost all activities of the day; (3) significant weight loss or weight gain when not dieting; (4) insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day; (5) psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day; (6) fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day; (7) feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt; (8) diminished ability to think or...

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Correspondence to Wen Zeng .

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Zeng, W. (2021). Depression and Antidepressants. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_418

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