Clinical Depression --various Types ?

Q: A clinical depression or a mood disorder is a syndrome (a constellation of signs and symptoms) that is not a normal reaction to life's difficulties. Mood disorders involve disturbances in emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and somatic regulation. A sad or depressed mood is only one of many signs and symptoms of clinical depression.

A:The high prevalence of depression and the success of available treatments prompted the need to develop a guideline to assist primary care providers (general practitioners, family practitioners, internists, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, mental health nurse specialists, physician assistants, and others) in the diagnosis of depression. The Depression Guideline Panel that prepared these guidelines is composed of experts from various mental health and primary care disciplines and a consumer representative, selected for their range and diversity of expertise. The guidelines are based on systematic literature reviews commissioned by the panel and conducted by experts in numerous areas relevant to depression, with special attention to clinical issues most pertinent to diagnosis and treatment of depression in primary care. Guideline development also included input from a broad range of professional and consumer organizations and individuals. The guidelines have undergone peer review and field review with intended users in clinical sites to evaluate the document both conceptually and operationally. The panel did not review the material used to develop the taxonomy in DSM-III-R. Rather, the panel reviewed the epidemiology of major depressive disorder in community samples and primary care settings and the course, co-occurrence, and co-morbidity of depressive and other medical conditions. Where summary statistics were lacking, but data sets were available, the panel commissioned reanalyses of available data. The panel also reviewed literature on the role of self-reports and clinician ratings as tools for detecting or differentially diagnosing depression. The role of laboratory tests in the differential diagnosis of medical causes

of depression was reviewed by using thyroid function testing as an example. I'm not sure what you think this article says, but one thing it certainly doesn't say is that there is some difference between clinical depression and major depressive disorder (or major depression). I didnt say it was different Maggie I said Major Depression is a type of Clinical Depression. There is more than just Major Depression that can be classified at Clinical, reread the 2nd paragraph of the article. Unfortunately psychiatric texts are not often on line and the issue is far too complicated to explain in a sentence or two although I believe that Desi just came as close as anyone.