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Page 36
| described in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. They are: |
| Poor appetite and significant weight loss, or increased appetite and significant weight gain. |
| Insomnia or increased sleep. |
| Agitation or retardation of movement and thought. |
| Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities or decrease in sexual drive. |
| Fatigue and loss of energy. |
| Feelings of worthlessness, self-reproach or excessive or inappropriate guilt. |
| Diminished ability to think or concentrate; indecisiveness. |
| Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide; or suicide attempts. |
| Not all of these characteristics occur in each individual who becomes depressed. For purposes of psychiatric treatment, a person is considered to have experienced a major depressive episode if he or she exhibits a loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all usual activities and shows at least four of the above symptoms nearly every day for a period of at least two weeks. The term depression is often modified by words that imply either some specific factor or some chemical mechanism is the cause of the state. |
| Depressions that are reactions to some loss of or separation from a valued person or object are called reactive (or exogenous) depressions. |
| This contrasts with the usually more severe depressions without apparent cause, called endogenous depressions, or those accompanied by delusions. |
| Specific remedies for depression |
| St. John's wort (hypericum) has a long tradition of use in Europe, and while it sometimes gets remarkable results |
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