If anybody is mentioned to have depression, most people are likely to have an idea of what that means. They would often imagine that individual feeling empty, discouraged, or even tired. People might also know the complementary symptoms of depression, such as sleeping patterns or weight changes. However, people might not be having the idea that there are various types of depression. The most common type of depression is Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). According to the WHO, MDD is among the highest causes of diseases globally, and it still projects to rise shortly (Bains & Abdijadid, 2020). The disorder can occur at any stage, but the median onset age is 32 years, and it's more prevalent in females than males. The paper focuses on the assessment and understanding of the disorder.
Overview
MDD is a mental disease that impairs the individual moods, behavioral patterns, and thoughts. It causes distress to people and impairs their quality of life and social functioning. It is usually characterized by sad feelings, losing interest, or the pleasure to carry out a person’s daily activities. People affected by the disorder usually have disturbances in their sleep, feeling tired, weight changes, trouble in paying attention, bodily impairments, among others (Kennedy, 2008). WHO has ranked it as among illnesses that cause disability and even premature deaths globally. The disorder is also expected to rise in the coming future. In the United States, the disorder is very common, with a lifetime prevalence of about 17% and 50% recurrence rate (Burcuso & Ianoco, 2009). The disorder is mostly related to extensive diseases, and many people seek dental treatments before being aware they have the disorder.
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Causes of MDD
MDD is an illness believed to be caused by environmental, mental, biological, genetic, and environmental factors. In the past, it was believed that it was caused by individual abnormalities in adrenalin, especially in serotonin and noradrenaline. The disease's major cause is GABA that exerts its antidepressant impacts to preventing the ascending Intropin pathways such as the mesolimbic and isocortex systems (Bains & Abdijadid, 2020). The use of alcohol and other drugs also leads to MDD. Consumption of alcohol suppresses the brain's capacity to generate enough supplies of the neurochemical serotonin involved in controlling appetite, sleep, memory, appetite, and cardiovascular functioning. It causes the individual feelings and behaviors to be more volatile, uncontrollable, and uncertain in serotonin's absence. People who have lower serotonin levels experience MDD, a condition that continues to lead to emotional instability and unease.
Medications also lead to MDD through alteration of the adrenaline in the individual’s central nervous system. Mediations make people experience fatigue, depressions, and reduced appetite (Celano et al., 2011). Environmental factors, such as child abuse and stressful life events, also cause depression. Childhood abuse usually has adverse impacts on the psychological and physical constraints, such as rising the likelihood risks of MDD in adulthood. The severity of MDD in adulthood resulted from their childhood abuse, which affects their personality, behavior, and cognitions (Hayashi et al., 2015). Childhood abuse has been reported to cause long-term MDD, reduced response to MDD treatment, and a rise in suicidal rates while MDD patients are being treated. Various signs and symptoms depict the prevalence of MDD.
Signs and Symptoms
MDD is usually caused by various factors that manifest in coping behaviors and responses to how individuals feel. The various symptoms of MDD are sleep disturbances, fatigue, and mental dysfunctions (Kennedy, 2008). People with MDD usually experience disturbance in sleeping, such as reduced sleeping latency or prolonged sleep early in the night. The sleeping disturbances make the people experience morning and daytime exhaustion, concentration problems, and irritable moods resulting in functional impairments to the depressed patients (Kennedy, 2008). MDD patients are likely to have sleeping problems relating to repetitive episodes, persistent illness course, and poor results. Also, it can lead to suicidal thoughts in the patients.
MDD patients also experience exhaustion and are unable to carry out their daily psychological and mental work. Fatigue makes people experience reduced energy and is usually related to sleeping problems. People with MDD also experience mental dysfunctions in which they experience the inability to concentrate on think (Kennedy, 2008). The psychological problem is usually prevalent in older people and involves mental processing speed, verbal fluency, and memory loss. People with MDD also experience loss of sexual desires, sexual drives, reduced arousals, or a decrease in the frequency of intercourse. Sexual dysfunction has deteriorated the marital relations intensifying depression. For many people suffering from the illness, the symptoms are acute to cause identifiable daily routines. Upon identifying the symptoms in an individual, MDD patients should go to a medical practitioner for diagnoses and treatment.
Diagnosis
Although there is no objective metric for diagnosing MDD, lab tests are done to rule out the medical or organic causes of the depression. Some of the diagnostic tests that can be done include the blood tests in which the health professional orders a compete for a blood test on the individual adrenal hormone levels to ensure the adrenals are functioning properly. The physician performs a physical examination and questions the patients about their health status to determine whether their symptoms are connected to the underlying problem. Also, a psychiatric assessment is undertaken to determine an individual's feelings, symptoms, thoughts, and behavioral patterns. Depressed people present their primary care doctors for personal complaints originating from MDD rather than seeing the Mental health professionals. Most people with MDD deny having it and are usually taken to hospitals by their relatives or employers.
Some of the immediate symptoms that require medical attention are late sleeplessness, weight loss, worse depression during morning hours, and excess guilt (Giannelli, 2020). PHQ-9 is usually used in medical treatment centers to screen, diagnose, and monitor the treatment response to MDD. PHQ-9 applies the items contained in the DSM-5 and also evaluates the psychosocial impairment. The PHQ-9 questionnaire contains 0 to 27 scores in which the score above of equal ten indicates the prevalence of MDD (Bains & Abdijadid, 2020). Diagnoses of MDD help physicians differentiate the individual symptoms from other forms of depressions and ensure the right treatment is administered.
MDD Treatments
The main objective of treating disease is to eliminate or reduce its symptoms to longer cause significant challenges to a patient. MDD patients benefit from the integration of treatments such as medications and psychotherapy. Early treatments of MDD helps in making the treatment more effective. Physicians can treat MDD illnesses through conducting psychotherapies. Cognitive and behavioral therapies are conducted to treat patients. Both therapies involve professionals conducting weekly meetings with the patients for around twelve weeks. During the therapy period, the patients are needed to do some homework; thus, they should be willing to take part in their treatment to acquire maximum benefits. Therapies help the patients adjust to their stressful events, improve their communication skills, and increase their self-esteem. Also, therapy helps MDD patients replace their negative notions and behaviors and regain their sense of control and satisfaction in their lives.
Offering medications help the patients treat their depression, and they are very effective and have less acute adverse impacts (Carty & Escalona, 2016). One of the common ways of treating MDD is offering SSRIs, such as Prozac, to the patients. The drugs are used to treat patients who have long-term anxieties and help prevent the serotonin malfunction in the brain, leading to high levels of adrenaline. SSRIs increase the level of serotonin in the brain, which helps in reducing MDD symptoms. Other medications such as off-center antidepressants help in treating MDD. MDD has side effects on patients, such as brain gain and sleepiness, and their patients should follow doctors’ instructions to help minimize the effects. Besides therapies and medications, MDD patients can control their illness by changing their daily routines. They can improve their lifestyles, such as improving their diets by their lifestyles by improving fit their minds. Eating foods with omega-3, vitamin B, and magnesium would help in reducing the MDD symptoms. MDD patients can also avoid drugs like alcohol as they are depressant in the nervous system. Having physical exercises helps in boosting individuals' moods and make them feel better. MDD patients should never feel hopeless as the disorder is treatable.
Conclusion
MDD is a mental illness that causes individuals to experience behavioral and physical challenges. The disorder is prevalent in both males and females and mostly occurs at around 32 years. The disorder is caused by different factors such as genetic, mental, environmental, and biological. Various factors such as child abuse, alcohol intake, and medications make people suffer from MDD. People usually have sleeping distances, weight loss, feeling exhausted, sexual and cognitive dysfunctions. Professionals can diagnose the disorder through conducting tests and using techniques such as PHQ-9. Upon diagnosing, MDD patients are treated through conducting therapies and giving medication. Patients are also advised to take healthy eating habits and do exercises to reduce their symptoms. Successful treatment of MDD patients needs persistence and patience to improve the patient's quality of life.
References
Bains, N., & Abdijadid, S. (2020). Major depressive disorder . StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559078/
Burcusa, S. L., & Iacono, W. G. (2007). Risk for recurrence in depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 27 (8), 959–985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2007.02.005
Carty, J. J., & Escalona, P. R. (2016). Brief review of major depressive disorder for primary care providers. Federal Practitioner, 33 (2), 12-16.
Celano, C. M., Freudenreich, O., Fernandez-Robles, C., Stem, T. A., Caro, M. A., & Huffman, J. C. (2011). Depressogenic effects of medications: a review. Dialogues Clinical Neuroscience, 13 (1), 109-125. https://dx.doi.org/10.31887%2FDCNS.2011.13.1%2Fccelano
Giannelli, F. R. (2020). Major depressive disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, 33 (4), 19-20. https://10.1097/01.JAA.0000657208.70820.ab
Hayashi, Y., Okamoto, Y., Takagaki, K., Okada, G., Toki, S., Inoue, T., . . . Yamawaki, S. (2015). Direct and indirect influences of childhood abuse on depression symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder. BMC Psychiatry , 15 , 244. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0636-1
Kennedy S. H. (2008). Core symptoms of major depressive disorder: relevance to diagnosis and treatment. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience , 10 (3), 271–277. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2008.10.3/shkennedy
