Is Depression a mental illness just like Schizophrenia?
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basically yes, they are both psychiatric disorders and both have chemical imbalances in their brains...depressives usually have a lack of serotonin levels in their brains and i believe schizos have increased dopamine activity
there's also the DSM criteria one should meet to be diagnosed with depression...
DSM-IV-TR criteria
According to the[28]DSM-IV-TR criteria for diagnosing a major depressive disorder (cautionary statement) one of the following two elements must be present for a period of at least two weeks:
* Depressed mood, or
* Anhedonia
It is sufficient to have either of these symptoms in conjunction with five of a list of other symptoms over a two-week period. These include:
* Feelings of overwhelming sadness and/or fear, or the seeming inability to feel emotion (emptiness).
* A decrease in the amount of interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, daily activities.
* Changing appetite and marked weight gain or loss.
* Disturbed sleep patterns, such as insomnia, loss of REM sleep, or excessive sleep (hypersomnia).
* Psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day.
* Fatigue, mental or physical, also loss of energy.
* Intense feelings of guilt, nervousness, helplessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, isolation/loneliness and/or anxiety.
* Trouble concentrating, keeping focus or making decisions or a generalized slowing and obtunding of cognition, including memory.
* Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), desire to just "lie down and die" or "stop breathing", recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
* Feeling and/or fear of being abandoned by those close to one.
but depression also has many categories...
Yes. Both depression and schizophrenia are psychiatric disorders (i.e., mental illnesses). They are quite different, however, as far as etiology, symptom presentation, and treatment.
It is simlar to saying that both chicken pox and AIDS are physical illnesses. It is a true statement, but it doesn't present the complete picture.
Depression is a mental illness. However, it is nothing like schizophrenia or other illnesses.
People with mental illnesses are just that.PEOPLE. That happen to act a little differently because of matters beyond their control.
It often is an illness, yes. And usually can be easily managed with medication. I am on Cymbalta for my chronic depression and it helps ALOT.
Yes and no. Both depression and schizophrenia are considered mental disorders by clinicians, both lead to abnormal behavior and abnormal brain function, and both can be inherited or triggered by disease. However, schizophrenia is almost impossible to "cure," whereas depression can come and go. Someone with severe depression in their teen years might recover and never feel depressed again. Additionally, depression can be alleviated with talk-therapy alone, whereas patients with Schizophrenia require anti psychotic medication to have fewer symptoms. Talk-therapy alone has no been reported to work.
It is a mental disorder but not anywhere near as serious as schizophrenia. Depression can be cured. Schizophrenia cannot. Don't even compare them to each other.
People experiencing an acute episode of schizophrenia have a sudden onset of severe psychotic symptoms. To be "psychotic" means to be out of touch with reality, or unable to separate real from unreal experience. People with this disease can experience periods of distorted sense of reality or ability to think and also hallucinations and delusions.
Depression is
a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity
sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy
Give me a good depression every time.
Depression comes on a scale of one to ten with schizoids having reached a ten . The chemicals are so strong then that they don't feel depressed any more as they lose touch with reality. Early depression is not usually seen until crying jags begin. Then its all the same . It gets worse or not depending on how mean your social group is to you. Remember it is all a social disorder at first.
Schizophrenia, Depression & Bipolar Disorder: Gene Hunting
Many years of research have demonstrated that vulnerability to mental illnesses—such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, early-onset depression, anxiety disorders, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—has a genetic component. It is now clear that these disorders are not due to a single defective gene, but to the joint effects of many genes acting together with nongenetic factors. Despite the daunting complexity, progress is being made. Researchers are hunting genes because they are likely to be a vital key to deciphering what goes wrong in the brain in mental illness.
Detecting multiple genes, each contributing only a small effect, requires large sample sizes and powerful technologies that can associate genetic variations with disease and thereby pinpoint candidate genes from among the many genes that are expressed in the human brain. And even after human disease vulnerability genes are found, sophisticated tools will be needed to find out what activates them, what brain components they code for, and how they affect behavior. The prospect of acquiring such molecular knowledge holds great hope for the engineering of new therapies.
Linkage studies are often based on the identification of large, densely affected families so that the inheritance patterns of known sections of DNA (called "markers") can be compared to the family's transmission of the disorder. If a known marker can be correlated with the presence or absence of the disorder, this finding narrows the location of the suspect gene.
Linkage-disequilibrium studies in isolated populations capitalize on the likelihood that the susceptibility genes for a particular disorder probably came from one or a few founding members. Whether the isolation is geographic or cultural, there are fewer individuals in the community's genealogies and therefore fewer variations of the disease genes within the population. This limited variation makes the search easier. In addition, the groups of markers that surround each of these susceptibility genes are likely to have the same limited variation, which further simplifies identification.
Association studies depend on the investigator hypothesizing that a specific gene or genes may influence the disorder. In this type of study, the investigator examines whether those people with the disorder have a different version of the gene than those without the disorder among related or unrelated individuals.
Evidence suggests that unaffected family members may share with their ill relatives genes that predispose for milder, but qualitatively similar behavioral characteristics. For example, some relatives of people with schizophrenia or autism may exhibit subtle cognitive problems. Family members may also share biological anomalies that could be clues to the underlying genetic component of the illness. For example, they may share telltale chemical signatures in cells of implicated brain circuits. NIMH-supported investigators are studying such families to characterize these behavioral and biological traits, in hopes of tracing the variations in the genetic blueprint that contribute to illness.
Some gene variants are likely to turn on too much or too little—or in the wrong place. This could interfere with the way brain cells work. It may also affect how cells migrate to other parts of the brain and connect with one another during early development. NIMH has mounted an effort to vastly expand the set of available tools for discovering the molecular mistakes that produce mental illness.
A vital resource for doing this, now under development, will be a shared scientific infrastructure called the Brain Molecular Anatomy Project (BMAP). The goals of this multidisciplinary effort are to catalog the genes that are active in various parts of the brain at different developmental stages, and to make this information readily available to investigators on a Web-based map.
The mouse's brain is a major initial focus of BMAP. A Web-based digital mouse brain atlas will offer 3-D and 2-D views of this biological blueprint, covering different strains and ages of animals. In addition to advancing basic knowledge, the BMAP database promises to enhance clinical science, providing new leads for studying gene expression in post-mortem tissue, for the identification of candidate genes, and enhanced capacity to screen for individuals who might be at risk for developing brain disorders.
A related set of developing tools also centers on the mouse: identifying the neural basis of complex behaviors. The mouse has become a critical model in studying human disease because scientists have access to many inbred strains, each expressing distinctive physiological and behavioral characteristics. Researchers can now insert, knock out, or mutate mouse genes, quickly breed a generation that expresses the change, and then see how it affects behavior. When illness-linked genes are discovered, they will be inserted and expressed in mice to find out what they do at the molecular, cellular and behavioral levels. Researchers will be able to track a wiring abnormality, a cell migration abnormality, or other anomaly that may lead to symptoms in humans.
Schizophrenia from what I've read is more bio-chemical
though depression is to some extent, it's more of an emotional component
the usually is a factor, ie loss of some kind that cannot be dealt with
much of the time the Schiz. is treated with inpatient care
much of the time depression is out patient
Schiz. is dealt with by a psychiatrist
depression by a counselor or psychologist
Hi Alex M,
The answer is yes, if the person has a diagnosis of 'clinical depression' and there are certain symptoms that must present for such a diagnosis to be made. Look up these symptoms on Yahoo or Google. See 'symptoms of clinical depression'. There are also some tests on the internet that can 'suggest' whether a diagnosis of 'clinical depression' is appropriate for the person taking the test. Please note that these tests are not authoritative they simply are helpful.
If a person has normal depression, as many persons worldwide may feel depressed if in a car accident for example, a difficult relationship, poor grades, death of a loved one etc. but are able to rebound after some time then a diagnosis of clinical depression may not be made.
As you may know, a psychiatrist is the best person in most instances to evaluate someone who appears not to be functioning well psychologically regardless of whether depression, schizophrenia, bipolar,ADHD, personality disorder, anxiety etc is present.
Good luck.
Barry H
Hello Alex. Definitely yes.a person with depression is as mentally ill as someone who suffers from schizophrenia. Actually most symptoms of mental illnesses overlap. (Bi-polar, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, schizophrenia). I am a depression sufferer and I´ve had symptoms such as lack of energy and concentration, feelings of worthlessness, anxiety, psychotic symptoms, don´t enjoy things I once enjoyed, I am very unmotivated etc. Having depression is not just being sad, you cannot just snap out of depression. I had to seek professional help. I am taking a med called Cymbalta and I am receiving acupuncture which have helped. If you suffer from depression or know someone who does please be patient and seek professional help. Any other doubts: Argentox2@yahoo.com
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