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Melancholic Depression

Melancholic depression is one of the most serious sub-types of major depression. Most people who get hospitalized because of depression actually suffer from melancholic depression. It is biological with such melancholic features as not finding pleasure in any thing that is positive and lack of changes in mood even with positive events.

Melancholic depression presents it symptoms in mood and emotions. You fail to find any interest in activities that normally bring you happiness and joy. Anything that is positive does not stimulate your mood emotions in any way. Instead of mornings heralding to you a new day, you find it bothersome that it is a new day and actually start each day in very low mood. Unlike known sadness, your sadness is profound, leading to anxiety, feeling of hopelessness before suicidal thoughts creep in. Other likely symptoms you are likely to experience include poor or lack of concentration, memory loss, reduced appetite and finding yourself sleeping longer than you normally do.

Melancholic depression is biologically based. This means that you can inherit the condition just in case one or both your parents have or had it. High stress level has also been found to trigger episodes of the condition. Having been diagnosed with any sub-type of bipolar depression puts you at a big risk of developing melancholic depression. This type of depression mostly affects adults and can be difficult to diagnose as a physician is likely to associate symptoms with those that set in with old age.

Proper diagnosis is very necessary for effective treatment of the condition. Your physician will normally ask several questions in relation to visible symptoms and your own explanation. He/she will want to know how you find it when getting out of bed in the morning, at what times do the symptoms worsen, any changes in your daily routine, your sleeping pattern and if anything improves your mood. These are very important questions that help a physician in diagnosing the condition.

Varied treatment methods are available for treating melancholic depression. Anti-depressant medications including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are widely used in treating the condition. Not all SSRI medications are however not effective in treating the condition. Because of this fact, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is usually the recommended method of dealing with the condition. Interpersonal therapy where a mental health professional works together with you has however been found to be the most effective way of treating melancholic depression.