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Diagnosing Depression

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Caring for Patients with Depression in Primary Care

Abstract

Depression does not always equal major depressive disorder. Depression is a nonspecific symptom that can result from a number of different causes, and not all of them are psychiatric illnesses—or even pathologic at all. Clinically significant depression in the real world is also usually multifactorial. This can have important implications for both prognosis and treatment. When making a diagnosis of a depressive disorder, it is therefore important to be able to appreciate the differences in how these disorders most commonly present. This chapter will describe the most important and common depressive disorders and explain how to recognize them in your patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    David S. Kroll

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  1. David S. Kroll
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Correspondence to David S. Kroll .

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Kroll, D.S. (2022). Diagnosing Depression. In: Caring for Patients with Depression in Primary Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08495-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08495-9_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-08494-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-08495-9

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