Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Depressive Disorders: Major, Minor, and Mixed

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology

  • 104 Accesses

Synonyms

Clinical depression; Depression; Unipolar depression

Definition

The depressive disorders comprise a spectrum of clinical syndromes characterized by persistent depressed mood or sadness, loss of interest (apathy), or loss of pleasure (anhedonia). These symptoms are to be distinguished from the transient feelings of unhappiness or sadness that constitute normal reactions to the disappointments or losses experienced in everyday life. The symptoms of depressive disorders cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning and are not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or a general medical condition. Depression is generally differentiated from bereavement, the expectable constellation of depressive symptoms following the loss of a loved one, although depression may be diagnosed if such symptoms are sufficiently severe and pervasive or are not characteristic of a “normal” grief reaction in the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • American Psychiatric Association (2010) Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with major depressive disorder, 3rd edn. American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition [DSM-5]. American Psychiatric Association, Arlington

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen LS, Wang B, Nonacs R, Viguera AC, Lemon EL, Freeman MP (2010) Treatment of mood disorders during pregnancy and postpartum. Psychiatr Clin North Am 33(2):273–293

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grunze H, Schüle C, Casey D, Baghai TC (2008) Mood disorders: depression. In: Tasman A, Maj M, First MB, Kay J, Lieberman JA (eds) Psychiatry, 3rd edn. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 1283–1332

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kupfer D, Frank E, Phillips ML (2012) Major depressive disorder: new clinical, neurobiological and treatment perspectives. Lancet 379(9820):1045–1055

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Frye MA, Shelton RC (2012) Review of pharmacological treatment in mood disorders and future directions for drug development. Neuropsychopharmacology 37(1):77–101

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palazidou E (2012) The neurobiology of depression. Br Med Bull 101:127–145

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothschild AJ (2013) Challenges in the treatment of major depressive disorder with psychotic features. Schizophr Bull 39(4):787–796

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shaywitz J, Rapaport MH (2013) Treatment of depression. In: Schatzberg AF, Nemeroff CB (eds) Essentials of clinical psychopharmacology, 3rd edn. American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington, DC, pp 577–589

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart JW, McGrath PJ, Quitkin FM, Klein DF (2009) DSM-IV depression with atypical features: is it valid? Neuropsychopharmacology 34(13):2625–2632

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Butler Hospital, 345 Blackstone Boulevard, Providence, RI, 02906, USA

    Dr. Lawrence H. Price

Authors
  1. Dr. Lawrence H. Price
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lawrence H. Price .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Behavioural Pharmacology, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry P049, London, United Kingdom

    Ian P. Stolerman

  2. Brown Medical School, Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Lawrence H. Price

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Price, L.H. (2013). Depressive Disorders: Major, Minor, and Mixed. In: Stolerman, I., Price, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_369-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_369-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27772-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation