Abnormal Psychology - Mood Disorders
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY: MOOD DISORDERS
A mood disorder is the term given for a group of diagnoses in the DSM IV TR classification system where a disturbance in the person 's emotional mood is hypothesised to be the main underlying feature. The classification is known as mood (affective) disorders in ICD 10.
English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder. The term was then replaced by mood disorder, as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others.
Definition
Depression: A low, sad state marked by significant levels of sadness, lack of energy, low self-worth, guilt, or related symptoms.
Mania: a state of or episode of euphoria or frenzied activity in which people may have an exaggerated believe that the world is theirs for the taking.
Symptoms of Depression
• Affective symptoms: The most striking symptom is depressed mood, with feelings of sadness, dejection, and excessive and prolonged mourning. Feelings of worthlessness and of having lost the joy of living are common. Wild weeping may occur as a general reaction to frustration or anger. Such crying spells do not seem to be directly correlated with a specific function.
Example:
It’s hard to describe the state I was in several months ago. The depression was total – it was as if everything that happened to me passed through this filter which colored all experiences. Nothing was exciting to me. I felt I was no good, completely worthless, and deserving or nothing. The people who tried to cheer me up were just living in a different world.
• Cognitive symptoms: Besides general feelings of futility, emptiness, and hopelessness, certain thoughts (e.g. negative view of the self, of the outside world and of the future [Beck, 1974]) and ideas are clearly related to depressive reactions. Disinterest, decreased energy and loss of motivation make it difficult for the
A mood disorder is the term given for a group of diagnoses in the DSM IV TR classification system where a disturbance in the person 's emotional mood is hypothesised to be the main underlying feature. The classification is known as mood (affective) disorders in ICD 10.
English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder. The term was then replaced by mood disorder, as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others.
Definition
Depression: A low, sad state marked by significant levels of sadness, lack of energy, low self-worth, guilt, or related symptoms.
Mania: a state of or episode of euphoria or frenzied activity in which people may have an exaggerated believe that the world is theirs for the taking.
Symptoms of Depression
• Affective symptoms: The most striking symptom is depressed mood, with feelings of sadness, dejection, and excessive and prolonged mourning. Feelings of worthlessness and of having lost the joy of living are common. Wild weeping may occur as a general reaction to frustration or anger. Such crying spells do not seem to be directly correlated with a specific function.
Example:
It’s hard to describe the state I was in several months ago. The depression was total – it was as if everything that happened to me passed through this filter which colored all experiences. Nothing was exciting to me. I felt I was no good, completely worthless, and deserving or nothing. The people who tried to cheer me up were just living in a different world.
• Cognitive symptoms: Besides general feelings of futility, emptiness, and hopelessness, certain thoughts (e.g. negative view of the self, of the outside world and of the future [Beck, 1974]) and ideas are clearly related to depressive reactions. Disinterest, decreased energy and loss of motivation make it difficult for the